Chapter VI. Chāturmāsya

Volume V: Part I pp. 122–123

Chapter VI. Chāturmāsya

On Āsāḍha-śukla ekādaśī or dvādaśī or paurnimā ¹ or on the day when the Sun enters the Zodiacal sign Cancer, cāturmāsya-vrata is to be observeḍ Whenever it may be begun it is to be finished on Kārtika-śukla 12. The performer should observe a fast that day, worship Viṣṇu (image) and pray as follows: (Garuḍapurāṇa I 121 2-3) 'O God! I have undertaken this vrata in your presence; may it succeed without obstacles if you become favourable to me, after I undertake this vrata if I die when it is half-finished, may it become completely fulfilled through your favour!' The vrata may be begun even when Jupiter or Venus has become invisible and the like. The per-former has to give up some edible during the four months, viz. vegetables in Śrāvaņa, curds in Bhādrapada, milk in Āśvina and pulses in Kārtika. According to some authorities, he has to give up some or all vegetables for all the four monthṣ The performer is asked to give up many other things also such as sleeping on a cot, meat, honey &c. When the vrata is finished, he invites brāhmaṇas, announces to them what restrictions he had undertaken, feeds them, gives them dakṣiṇā, and recites the prayer 'O Lord! this vrata was undertaken by me in order to please you, O Janārdana! may it become complete through your favour, whatever defect there may be!' This vrata is even now observed, particularly by womeṇ The Kṛtyatattva (p 435), Vratārka, Vrataprakāśa (folio 105a) and other mediæval digests quote long passages from the Matsya, Bhaviṣyottara (I. 6-9) and other purāṇas about the results of giving up certain things in the Cāturmāsyavrata. A few passages are set out for sample. 'a man secures a sweet voice by giving up jaggery, has charm-ing limbs by giving up oil, by giving up ghee he secures beauty, by giving up fruits he becomes intelligent and has many sons, by giving up vegetables and leaves he secures well-cooked dishes, by giving up curds and milk he goes to the world of cowṣ² In the Vedic period there were sacrifices called Cāturmāsyas (seasonal sacrifices) that were performed on the Full Moon days of Phālguna (or Caitra), of Āṣāḍha and Kārtika and were respectively called Vaiśvadeva, Varuṇapraghāsa and Sākamedha (the fourth called Śunāsīrīya need not detain us). Vide H. of Dh. vol. II. pp. 1091–1106. It was expressly stated by Āpastamba Śrauta VIII. 4. 13 that Vaiśvadeva (parvan of Cāturmāsya) was to be offered in vasanta and Varuṇapraghāsa in the rainy seasoṇ It may be noted that the sacrificer in these seasonal sacrifices had to keep certain observances such as sleeping on the ground,³ avoiding meat, honey, salt, sexual intercourse and bodily decorations, which closely resemble the restrictions laid on the person observing Ekādaśīvrata. The Yājñavalkya-smṛti⁴ (I. 125) makes it obligatory on a person of means to offer a Soma sacrifice every year, a paśubandha in each ayana, the Āgrayanesti (performed when new crops are ready) and the cāturmāsyaṣ The cāturmāsyas meant here are the Vedic ones and not the Paurāṇika vratas of cāturmāsya. The Yājñavalkya-smṛti employs the word vrata in the sense of prāyaścitta in III. 251, 252, 254, 266, 269, 282, 298, 300, in the sense of 'brahmacarya' in III. 15, and in the sense of the food to be subsisted upon in III. 289, but hardly ever in the sense of purāṇaṣ This at least indicates that the vratas mentioned in the purāṇas had not attained prominence in the time of the Yājñavalkya-smṛti, which, in spite of its containing over 1000 verses, hardly ever refers to any vrata in the sense of the purāṇaṣ