Part 9 - Paddhatis (ceremonial guides)

These are same works on Dharmaśāstra which are known by the name “paddhati”. The term “Paddhati” is a Sanskrit compound consisting of the terms “pad” and “hati”. Here Paddhati means trodden path or the tradition. These digests ultimately guide all religious ceremonies within Brahmanism, a religion that, forms its most archaic manifestation in the Vedas and has privileged sacred text in sanctioning all matters of doctrine and practice. According to the learned medieval exegete Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha, for any scripture, a paddhati is a text which enables the performance of the rituals of that scripture along with the mantras that accompany them by succinctly arranging in the order of performance (1) the instructions explicitly stated in that scripture but dispersed in various places throughout its length, and (2) whatever else those explicit statements imply. An example is the Yājñasūtra in the case of the Kāṭhaka Yajurveda.^[1]

The following are famous paddatis.

1. Īśānaśivagurudeva paddhati,
2. Upākarma paddhati,
3. Antyeṣṭikarma paddhati,
4. Brahmayajña paddhati,
5. Gāyatriyāga paddhati,
6. Lekṣiyāga paddhati,
7. Maṅgalaśāntyanuṣṭāna paddhati,
8. Navagraha yāga paddhati,
9. Sandhyopāsana paddhati,
10. Śaniśāntyanuṣṭhāna paddhati,
11. Śrī vidyāsaparyā paddhati,
12. Śrī mahāvidyā puruṣeharan paddhati,
13. Śrī Rāmacaraṇa paddhati,
14. Vasiṣṭhahavana paddhati,
15. Viṣṇuyāga paddhati,
16. Vivāha paddhati etc.