Rudrī

Rudrī

The Rudrī is a recitation to Rudra that the brāhmaṇas chant during the homa of the Brahmāṇḍa-dāna. In the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches Yudhishṭhira this gift as Agastya Maharshi taught it. The text names the Rudrī and its place in the rite.

The setting

The Brahmāṇḍa-dāna removes the three kinds of pāpa, of body, mind and speech, and gives fame, wealth, life, honour and a good state after death. A golden image of the Brahmāṇḍa (the universe) is made, of twenty to a thousand palas, showing devatās, daityas, humans, gandharvas, nāgas, rākshasas, rivers, lakes, oceans, mountains and the dig-gajas, with Brahmā, Vishṇu and Śiva and their consorts on the peaks of Meru, and the fourteen bhuvanas. At an ayana-saṅkrānti, the vishuva-yoga, an eclipse or another parva it is set on a droṇa of sesame in a maṇḍapa, smeared with kuṅkuma, covered with two cloths and worshipped, with full kalaśas and eighteen kinds of grain around it.

Its place in the rite

Brāhmaṇas who know the four Vedas, with the upādhyāya and the king’s purohita, perform the homa by the rule of the grahayajña. They give sesame offerings with the name-mantras of Vishṇu, Śiva, Brahmā and the other devatās, then ten thousand offerings with the mahāvyāhṛtis, and the brāhmaṇas also recite the Rudrī. Then the yajamāna bathes, wears white, worships the Brahmāṇḍa and prays.

The phala

Śrī Kṛshṇa says that one who gives the Brahmāṇḍa has as it were given the whole moving and unmoving world. He uplifts his kulas and is established in Brahmaloka for thirty-six manvantaras; returning to the human world, he is born in a dhārmika family, free of poverty and disease, and is not parted from those dear to him. Even one who hears or tells the glory of this gift with bhakti gains a good state after death.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 177

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 177