Eclipse (Grahana) and Dharma Shastra

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Following is an excerpt from the book 

"History of Dharma Shastra (ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL LAW IN INDIA)"

By

MAHĀMAHOPADHYAYA PANDURANG VAMAN KANE,

Grahaṇa (eclipse, solar and lunar) 

    Great importance was attached from very ancient times to eclipses. An extensive literature has accumulated on this subject.

    A total eclipse of the Sun is referred to even in the Rig Veda 5:40.5,6,8 — 

            ‘O Sun when Svarbhānu, the son of an Asura, struck you with darkness. O Indra! When you struck: down the wiles of Svarbhānu that
            existed below the heaven, Atri secured the Sun which had been concealed by darkness that Devīated from the usual rule (or law) by
            means of the highest (or 4th) prayer’.

    It is stated in the Sānkhāyana Brāhmaṇa (24-3) that the Atris performed the three day before Visuvat and thereby smote the demon Svarbhānu that had pierced the sun with darkness i.e. the solar eclipse (In R.V. 5:40:5 ff) took place three days before the autumnal Visuvat (equinox).

    It appears from the Brhat-samhitā that the real cause of eclipses was known to Indian astronomers several centuries before Varāhamihra (1st half of 6th century A.D.) who remarks — 

           

            ‘In a lunar eclipse the moon enters into the shadow of the earth and in a solar eclipse the moon enters the Sun (i.e. comes between
            the sun and the earth), that this cause of eclipses was found by (former) ācāryas who had a divine insight, that Rāhu is not the
            cause (of eclipses), this is the true state that the Sāstra (of astronomy) declares (or this is the real intent of śāstra)’.

    In spite of this correct theory of eclipses, common people and even learned men (not astronomers) then believed and do believe up to the present day that Rāhu is the cause of eclipses and regard an eclipse as a special occasion for bath, gifts, Japa, śrāddha and the like. Varāhamihira makes an effort to square Śruti, Smṛti, popular belief and real astronomical doctrine by the remark that there was an Asura on whom a boon was conferred by Brahmā — ‘You will be gratified by a portion of the gifts and offerings made on an eclipse’, that Asura remains present to receive his portion and that therefore it is metaphorically (poetically) said that he is Rāhu. Rationalism and popular traditions and superstitions cannot go together. Some difference was made between an eclipse of the Sun and that of the moon. Vyāsa says: — 

            “An eclipse of the moon is one hundred thousand times (more meritorious than an ordinary day) and an eclipse
            of the Sun ten times more so than the preceding and if the waters of the Ganges are near (for a bath) then
            a moon eclipse is one million times (more meritorious) and a sun’s eclipse is ten times more so than the preceding.” 

    The first duty of a person on seeing an eclipse is to bathe, It is said ‘on seeing Rāhu (i.e. eclipse) every one becomes impure. They should first bathe and then do their usual duties and should give up food already cooked (before the eclipse)’. Peculiar sanctity was deemed to attach to the time of grahana. If a person does not take a bath at the time of eclipse at the passage (of the sun) from one rāśi to another, there is no doubt that he would suffer from leprosy for seven future lives and sorrow would be his lot.’ He should take a bath in cold water and in as holy a place as possible. The holiest bath is the one in the Ganges or Godāvari or at Prayaga. Then in any one of the big rivers such as the six rivers connected with Himavat mountain and the six south of the Vindhya mentioned in the Brahma Purāna, then in any other water, since at the time of eclipse all water becomes holy like Ganges water. A bath with hot water was allowed only to children, old men and persons that were ill. One had to take a bath when the eclipse began, to perform homa, worship of gods and srāddha while the eclipse was in progress, to make gifts when the eclipse is about to end, and to take a bath again when the sun or moon became free from eclipse. Even a person who is impure owing to a birth or death has to take a bath on an eclipse but he is not to make a gift or to perform srāddha (according to Gauda writers), but the Madana-ratna and the Nirṇaya-sindhu refute this view and hold that in an eclipse even one who is in aśauca can take a bath, perform śrāddha and puraścarana.

    In the Purāṇas and medieval digests some distinction as regards merit at holiness was made between eclipses in certain months and baths in certain rivers or holy places. The Kālanirṇaya (p 350) especially commends the Godāvari for a bath in a lunar eclipse and one in the Narmadā for a solar eclipse. The Kṛtyakalpataru (Naiyatakāla), Hemādri on Kāla and the Kāla-viveka quote a long passage from the Devī Purāna, some verses of which may be rendered here:— ‘an eclipse in Kartika is the highest (in merit) at the confluence of the Gangā and Yamunā, in Margaśīrsa on Devīkā, in Pauṣa Narmadā is holy, in Māgha Sannihitā is holy’ &c. The general rule is that one should not take a bath, make a gift or perform a śrāddha at night. But eclipses were an exception as regards bath gift and śrāddha. Yajñavalkya enumerates eclipses among the proper times for śrāddha.

    It is stated by Śatatāpa that gifts, baths, tapas and śrāddha at the time of eclipses yield inexhaustible (rewards or merit); the night is a rākṣasī elsewhere (at times other than those of eclipses); therefore one should avoid it (in other matters). A passage is quoted from the Mahābhārata on ayana and Visuva days and on the occasion of the eclipses of the sun and the moon, one should make a gift of land together with daksina to a deserving brāhmana’. Yajñavalkya succinctly observes — 

            “not by learning alone nor by tapas alone (does one become a deserving person); that is declared a deserving person (pātra) in
            whom these two (vidyā and tapas) and actions (appropriate to these) are found.”

    Numerous inscriptions published so far bear witness to the fact that over the whole of India ancient and medieval kings and well-to-do people carried out to the letter this recommendation of making gifts of land on eclipses. As regards srāddha it is often difficult to perform it in the time of an eclipse for two reasons eclipses are partial and the time is short; Besides there is a prohibition to eat food during an eclipse a prājapatya expiation is prescribed for the eating of food during on eclipse. It is therefore provided in some smṛtis and digests that the śrāddha performed should be the āma-śrāddha or hema-śrāddha.Though the person performing śrāddha in an eclipse is deemed to earn great merit, the person partaking of śrāddha dinner is liable to undergo an expiation and is generally looked down upon.

    The Mitāksari on Yaj I 217-218 quotes the first quarter of a verse ‘one should not eat during a solar or lunar eclipse.’ Therefore a good Brāhmaṇa cannot be easily secured and the performance of śrāddha with details is well-nigh impossible even though Satatapa and others state that it is obligatory:— 

            ‘on seeing Rahu (i.e. an eclipse) one should perform a śrāddha even at the cost of all his wealth; 

            one who does not perform srāddha then sinks like a cow in mud.’ 

    The order of several acts on an eclipse is:— first bath in Ganges or offer water, prāṇāyāma, tarpana, japa of Gāyatrī, homa in fire with sesame with the vyāhṛtis and the mantras for the planets as in Yāj. 1 300-301, then āma śrāddha, gifts of gold, food, cows and land.

    In these days most people except very sophisticated ones still take a bath on eclipses and make some gifts also, but do not proceed further in the matter of eclipses. An eclipse is the best time for japa and for dikṣā (initiation) and perfection in the mantras peculiar to various deities:— ‘one should engage in Japa and the like while an eclipse of the sun or moon is in progress; one should not bathe nor eat food during that time, but when the sun and the moon are free from eclipse one should bathe and partake of food one may engage in the japa of the Gayatri mantra and it is laid down that if one does not engage in japa on an eclipse one becomes sinful. For dīkṣā as to mantras seven days from eclipse are allowed. Solar eclipse is the best time for dikṣā.

    The Puṇya-kāla (the holy period) in the case of eclipses lasts only as long as the eclipse is visible to the eye. Jābāli says — ’In the case of saṅkrānti the puṇyakāla is 16 kālas on both sides thereof, but in the case of a lunar or solar eclipse it lasts only so long as the eclipse is visible.’ This leads on to a question that is very much discussed in the several medieval works and on which there is great divergence of views. Much emphasis is laid on the words ‘yāvad-darśana- go-caraḥ’ and ‘rāhu-darśane’ occurring in several verses (quoted in the notes, 633, 639 &c.) The Kṛtya-kalpa-taru (Naiyatakāla) argues that in those passages ‘darśana’ (being visible) is declared to be the cause or occasion of the several acts (snāna, dāna &c.) to be performed in an eclipse, that an eclipse is an occasion only when it is known that it has occurred, and that knowledge must be derived from the eye and that therefore when the Sun or Moon is screened from view by clouds one need not enter upon a bath and the like prescribed in the case of an eclipse. Hemādri on Kāla quotes this view and criticizes it in several ways. He first relies on Manu IV. 37 that prescribes that one should never gaze at the sun when it is rising or setting or when it is eclipsed or reflected in water or when it is in mid-sky. If actual seeing were necessary, that is an impossible condition as Manu has prohibited it and the result would be that one need not bathe when an eclipse is really on. He further says that Siṣṭas do observe bath &c even if they do not actually see the eclipse Therefore, he proposes that puṇya-kāla exists as long as the eclipse is deduced to last from the śāstra (of astronomy).

    The Kṛtya-ratnākara (pp. 625-26) discusses the question, remarks that snāna and the other prescribed actions should be performed during the period in which the eclipse can be seen. It was argued by some that an eclipse by itself (and not seeing it) is the occasion on which bath, gift &c. Must be observed; to this the Kāla-viveka gave the reply that if mere existence of an eclipse an occasion for bath then the unacceptable conclusion would be that even if the moon were to be eclipsed (in some other country) according to astronomical calculations a person in a different country would have to undergo a bath by day for a lunar eclipse in a distant land. The Smṛti-kaustubha and Samayaprakāsā therefore lay down what is meant by ‘darśana-gocaraḥ’ is that when one knows from the astronomical science that the eclipse is capable of being seen with the eye in a particular country one should at the respective times perform bath and the like (even though one may not actually see it). 

    The Samvatsara-pradipa is quite explicit —

            ‘that is said to be an eclipse which can be observed by the eye; one should perform religious acts on such an eclipse,
            but not on mere calculation.’ 

    If a solar eclipse occurs on a Sunday and a lunar one on Monday, such a conjunction was called Cūḍāmani and it was laid down that a Cūḍāmani eclipse yields one million times as much merit as an eclipse on other week days. Some held that on the day previous to an eclipse one should observe a fast; but Hemādri provided that a fast was to be observed on the day of the eclipse. A householder however who had a son living was not to observe a fast as laid down in a text.

    

    About partaking of food before, during and after an eclipse elaborate rules were laid down from comparatively early times. The Viṣṇu-dharma-Sūtra provides:— 

            ‘one must not eat during an eclipse of the moon or sun; he should eat, after having previously taken a bath, when the
            eclipse is at an end; if the sun or moon have set before the eclipse was over he must bathe and on the next day he
            may eat again after having seen the Sun rise’ 

    This is elaborated in two verses quoted in several works:— 

            “One should not take food before a solar eclipse and also in the evening of the day of a lunar eclipse; and one should not eat when the eclipse is in progress; but when the sun or moon is free from eclipse one may, after a bath, partake of food; when the moon is free from eclipse one may take food (even at night thereafter) provided it is not mahāniśa, when the sun or moon sets before being free from eclipse, one should see them rising the next day, bathe and then partake of food.” 

    It was further prescribed that not only was one not to eat during an eclipse, but in the case of a lunar eclipse one was not to eat for three praharas (9 hours or 22 1⁄2 ghatikas) before the eclipse started and for four praharas before a solar eclipse starts but this does not apply to children, old men and women. The period of three or four praharas before an eclipse was called and even now is called ‘Vedha’. The Kṛtyata-tattva (P.434) collects together in one place all the above propositions about taking food Although these rules are not generally observed nowadays by people in cities, in the author’s boyhood they were universaly observed by almost all adults educated or illiterate.

    Certain astrological results were deemed to follow from eclipses. One or two are cited here for illustration. The Viṣṇu-dharmottara states that if in one and the same month there is first an eclipse of the moon and then of the Sun, that occurrence would tend to create disputes between brāhmana and kṣatriyas, but if the opposite was the case, then there would be prosperity. The same Purāna says that persons born on the nakṣatra on which there is an eclipse of the sun or moon suffer troubles unless they perform the śānti rites.