Śrāvaṇa
Śrāvaṇa, “the month of the Śravaṇa nakshatra”
Grammar: masculine noun, from Śravaṇa, the nakshatra: “the month of Śravaṇa“, the month in whose full moon the moon stands in Śravaṇa.
Meaning: a month of the lunar year, at the start of the rainy season.
In the scriptures: Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada that when Uttarāyaṇa has passed and Āshāḍha comes, Lakshmīpati sleeps on the bed of Śesha; when Sūrya enters Karkaṭa, the night of the devas, Dakshiṇāyana, begins. From pāḍyami to the ekādaśī of the kṛshṇa paksha the devas then sleep one by one: Viriñci, Viśvakarmā, Pārvatī, Vināyaka, Yama, Kumārasvāmī, Sūrya, Kātyāyanī, Mahālakshmī, the pannagas and the Sādhyas. “In this order the devas sleep in the month of Śrāvaṇa; from then the rainy season begins.” The day on which Viśvakarmā sleeps is the Aśūnya-śayana Dvitīyā (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 17).
The kṛshṇa ashṭamī of Śrāvaṇa joined with Mṛgaśirā is called Kālāshṭamī. On it Śaṅkara sleeps in all liṅgas, and worship of him then gives an imperishable fruit. On that day one bathes the deity with water of cow’s urine, worships Trilocana with dhattūra flowers, offers dhūpa and a naivedya of honey and ghee, says “May Virūpāksha be gracious to me!”, and gives the naivedya with gold to a brāhmaṇa. So begins a year-long vrata to Śiva, month by month, and it closes again in Śrāvaṇa: one bathes him with water of bhṛṅgarāja leaves, worships with bilva leaves, offers agaru dhūpa and a naivedya of curd vaḍas cooked in ghee, laḍḍus, curd rice and appams, gives a white bull, a kapilā cow, gold and red cloths as dakshiṇā, and chants the name “Gaṅgādhara”. One who keeps the vrata for a year gains endless desires; Rudra himself explained it (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 17).
In the dvādaśa-patraka yoga, the yoga of the twelve leaves that Brahmā (Pitāmaha) teaches Sanatkumāra, each leaf has a syllable, a place on the body, a rāśi and a month. The fourth leaf is the syllable bhā on the two eyes, with the rāśi Karkaṭa and the month Śrāvaṇa (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35).
The Vāmana Purāṇa uses the word in these places as well:
- In his stotra to Bhagavān Vishṇu, Brahmā says: “You are the months Śrāvaṇa and Bhādrapada” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 66).
- In Prahlāda‘s teaching to Bali on the gifts dear to Bhagavān Vishṇu month by month, in Śrāvaṇa the jñānīs give, for the pleasure of Śrīdhara, pots filled with ghee and with milk, a ghṛtadhenu (a cow made of ghee) and fruits (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 68).
Related terms: Śravaṇa · Bhādrapada · Āshāḍha · Dakshiṇāyana · Kālāshṭamī · Dvādaśa-patraka
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 17, 35, 66, 68