1876.] 



at Delhi three thousand years ag.o. 



387 



rendered travelling and itinerary mendicancy inconvenient, and shelter under 

 the roof of a hermitage, or monastery, was an absolute necessity ; and the 

 period of this confinement was, therefore, the best adapted for reading and 

 particular forms of penance. From the circumstance of the ceremony being 

 observed in the rainy weather, it had the alternative name of Wassd or " the 

 autumnal rite." When Hinduism revived, the Chaturmasya could not be 

 conveniently sent back to the season when it was originally celebrated, so in 

 the modern calender it begins on the 11th of the waning moon in S'ravana 

 (July), and terminates on the 11th of the waxing moon in Kartika, (Octo- 

 ber — November) ; though the ceremony is not finally closed until the full 

 moon following. Women and hermits are the principal observers of this 

 ceremony in the present day, and it is made up of a series of fasts and 

 penances : some abstaining from the evening meal, or rice altogether ; some 

 taking their food served on the bare ground ; some giving up the use of 

 bedsteads ; others eschewing the use of betel leaf, condiments and rich food 

 of all kinds. Abstinence from flesh meat and fish, from fine clothing, and 

 from indulgence in singing, dancing, and music are obligatory on all. In 

 some of its features the new rite bears a close resemblance to the Lent o£ 

 the Christian Church, and, curiously enough, its old prototype, the Vedic 

 rite, commenced at about the same time. 



The sacrifice opened with the cooking of eight pots of frumenty for a 

 divinity named Anumiti, who, according to some, is the presiding spirit of the 

 interval between the 14th and the 15th lunation, but, in the opinion of others, 

 that of fertile land. The frumenty being duly consecrated and offered, a 

 fee of one milch cow was to be given to the priest. The object of this offer- 

 ing was to pacify the earth and make her agreeable and favourably disposed to 

 the sacrifice. Then followed an offering of one potful of frumenty to Nirriti, 

 the personation of barren land, or the evil genius which causes mischief and 

 interruptions to the progress of the rite. The fee (Dakshind) for this 

 offering was a piece of black cloth with a black fringe ; and this offering 

 had to be made while standing at the doorway, so as to protect the^ sacri- 

 ficial hall from her encroachment. Offerings next followed to A'ditya, 

 Yishnu, Agni, Indra, Soma, and Sarasvati,to each a specific number of platters 

 of the frumenty, and an appropriate fee for the priest who consecrated those 

 offerings on the fire. The fee varied from a bit of gold to a calf, a bull, 

 or one or two milch cows. The full-moon rite, Purnamasa, was then 

 performed with offerings of Soma beer and animal sacrifice as ordained 

 under that head in the Vedas. 



After this preliminary homa, the rites proper of the first Chatur- 

 masya, which bore the specific name of Vaisvadeva Parva, began. These 

 included a daily round of offerings, morning, noon, and evening, the arti- 

 cles offered being mostly clarified butter and frumenty cooked with grains 



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