Śmaśāna

Śmaśāna, “the cremation ground”

Grammar: neuter noun: “the cremation ground”.

Meaning: the cremation ground, where the bodies of the dead are burned; a place of impurity for study, and the place of the fierce Devīs and of the rites done against enemies.

In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa names the śmaśāna in these places.

  • The Ambāshṭaka Devīs: Hayagrīva, teaching the marks of the mūrtis of the Devī, describes Rudracāmuṇḍā, who is also named Nāṭyeśvarī because she dances, Caturmukhī Mahālakshmī, Siddhacāmuṇḍā, Siddhayogeśvarī, who gives complete siddhi, Bhairavī and the twelve-armed Rūpavidyā. All these Devīs appear in the śmaśāna and are fearsome; together they are called the Ambāshṭaka (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 50).
  • The cremation rite: the body is bathed, covered with a new cloth, worshipped with flowers and taken to the śmaśāna. It is burned naked, and not even a little of it is left over. A sagotra lifts the body onto the pyre; one who had established the sacred fires is burned with the three fires, one who had upanayana with one fire, and others with common fire (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 158).
  • Anadhyāya: Pushkara, telling the dharma, names the causes of a momentary anadhyāya (a pause in Vedic study): the cries of a dog, jackal, donkey or owl, the sound of the Sāma-gāna or of arrows, a cry of distress, the nearness of an impure thing, a corpse, a śūdra, an antyaja, a śmaśāna or a patita, inauspicious stars, and lightning again and again (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 162).
  • Where serpents live: Agnideva, telling the marks of serpents, names their dwellings: temples, empty houses, ant-hills, gardens, hollow trees, the junctions of roads, śmaśānas, the meeting of a river with the sea, islands, crossroads, palaces, lotus-ponds, mountain peaks, old wells and walls, certain trees and old ramparts (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 294).
  • In the Yuddhajayārṇava: Parameśvara teaches the Devī the agni-kārya (fire rite) for victory in battle: going at night to the śmaśāna, naked, with the śikhā untied and facing south, one offers into the burning pyre human flesh and blood, poison, husk and bones, naming the enemy, with the mantra eight hundred times, and the enemy becomes bound (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 125). Charcoal from the śmaśāna, mixed with the droppings of a crow and an owl, is used to draw the enemy’s picture on a cloth; his name is written nine times on its limbs, and the cloth is kept in battle with japa. On Kālarātri, after caru is offered to the Mātṛkās, one addresses the enemy from afar with the ash of the śmaśāna, mālatī flowers and the root of the cotton plant (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 133).
  • In the mantra prayogas: Agnideva teaches rites done in or with the śmaśāna. Three lakhs of japa of the mūla mantra at night in the śmaśāna, with homa of samidhs in the funeral fire, turn back the enemy, and ash from the pyre is used in the utsādana prayoga (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 306). In the Tvaritā rites, the bali may be given at the door of the maṇḍapa, at doors, or at a śmaśāna where there is a single tree (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 311). A cloth from the śmaśāna, or a skull, is used for the rite of attraction; a six-cornered cakra drawn on a śmaśāna cloth with blood mixed with poison and struck with a staff breaks the kingdom of the enemy king; and charcoal of the śmaśāna and pyre ash are used in writing the enemy’s name on a sword (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 312). An eight-petalled lotus cakra drawn with pyre charcoal on a śmaśāna cloth is pushed into an image of the enemy made of pyre ash (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 313). The nigraha mantra, written with an ink that has pyre charcoal in it, is buried face down in a pit in the śmaśāna or at a crossroads (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 314). The navagraha yantra, worshipped with a hundred arka flowers, is buried in the śmaśāna, and the “oṃ kuñjarī” yantra is worshipped there, for the destruction of the enemy (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 315).

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa: when Diti came to Kaśyapa Maharshi at the sandhyā, he told her that at that hour Bhagavān Rudra, master of the bhūtas and pretas, roams mounted on his vṛshabha, surrounded by his hosts: “Rudra’s shining jaṭājūṭa is scattered by the whirlwind of the śmaśāna and is full of ash. His whole pure body, of golden lustre, is smeared with bhasma; he is the husband of your sister Satī Devī, and he watches all with his three eyes, which are Sūrya, Candra and Agni.” Maitreya Maharshi tells this to Vidura (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 14).

In the Brahma Purāṇa:

  • Śiva, the dweller in the śmaśāna. Brahmā tells the munis that when Devī Pārvatī‘s mother Menā said to her in private that her husband was poor and always played with playthings, the Devī asked Mahādeva for another dwelling, telling him that her mother did not like his sport with the pramatha gaṇas and the bhūtas, pretas and piśācas. To make the Devī laugh, Bhagavān Śiva answered: “What your mother said is true. Here I am: Kṛttivāsa, clad in a hide, homeless, dwelling in the śmaśāna, without even a shade to stand in. I wander in forests, on hills and in caves with crowds of digambaras. There is no relative equal to a mother.” For the delight of his beloved, Parameśvara then went with his pramatha gaṇas to Meru (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 38).
  • No place for yoga. Vyāsa, teaching the maharshis the practice of yoga, names the places where yoga must never be practised: near water, in a ruined cow-shed, at a crossroads, where snakes move about, in a śmaśāna, at the edges of rivers, near fire, at caityas, in villages, near trees planted for people to gather and for pūjā as devatās, near ant-hills, in places where there is cause for fear, near wells and near heaps of dry leaves. One who in folly practises yoga in such places suffers deafness, dullness of mind, loss of memory, dumbness, blindness and fever, and ajñāna arises; for the body alone is the means of all four purushārthas, so one keeps these rules and protects it (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 235).

Related terms: Citā · Dāha-saṃskāra · Anadhyāya · Abhicāra · Ambāshṭaka · Yuddhajayārṇava

Other meanings

Śmaśāna has more than one meaning in the Purāṇas and Itihāsas. Besides the meaning above, it names those listed here, each with where it is told.

  • Śmaśāna (Tīrtha): a holy tīrtha named only by name in the Brahma Purāṇa’s great list of the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth. Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25

Sources

  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 50, 125, 133, 158, 162, 294, 306, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315
  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 14
  • Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 38, 235