Vikalpa In Manubhasya 11.216

[Full title: Mimamsa technical terms (22) Vikalpa (cf. Samuccaya) (36) References in Manubhasya verse 11.216]

REFERENCE Manu Smriti XI - 216. 937 passage - caturdasyamuposya svayambhutayam paurnamasyam pamcadasa grasanasriyat | grasapramanam catsyadhikarena grasanumamtranam ca | • apyayasva sante payasiti ' smrtyantarokto vidhirapeksitavyah | eka sastra va sarvasmrsti namasati virodhe samagra yojya | virodhe tu vikalpah | (Medhatithi on Manu Smriti XI.216) Translation Having fasted on the fourteenth day on the next day or the full moonday, he shall take fifteen mohsels; the exact measure of the 'mosel' in this comection should be understood to be as mentioned in another Smrti (Gautama 27-10) the word 'Apyayasva', the measure of the mosel being the quantity that does not distort the face. As all the Smrtis deal with the same subject, they should be taken as mutually complementary, so long as there is no inconsistency; and in cases of inconsistency, the two views should be taken as optional alternatives. Explanation 1 While describing the expiatory penances, Manu describes Chandrayana penance in Manusmrti XI-216. The stanza means - If one reduce his food by one morsel daily during the dark half of the month, and increases it 2 during the bright-half, bathing at the three extactions, it is what has been called the Chandrayana. 1. ekaikam hrasayetpindam krsne sukle ca vardhayet| upasprsam trisavanametaccandrayanam smrtam || 11-216 2....On next page.

While commenting on this verse Medhatithi states the method of Chandrayana that, after fasting on fourteenth day or on neat day or on full moon-day, a person must take fifteen morsels. The exact measure of morsel is stated differently in different Smrtis. Therefore, inconsistency may arise. In that circumstances one must go for optional alternative. Thus the confusion in the mind goes and one may perform the said penance very smoothly. Thus the Mimamsa technical term Vikalpa pays the part of removal of inconsistency arises in the matter of measurement of morsel stated in different Smrtis. (Other commentators of Manu have not interpreted this stanza from Mimamsa point of view). 938 2. CHANDRAYANA The word is derived in this way. That rite, where there is action by means of increase and decrease (in the intake of food) in imitation of the course of the phases of the moon, is Chandrayana. The word occurs in Pan. V.I-72 Parayana Turayand -Chandrayana Valtoyati). From very ancient times Chandrayana has been divided into two varieties, called Yavamadhay (lit. being large in the middle like a grain of Yava, and therefore, tapering or thin at the ends) and Pipilika Madhya (i.e. having a middle like that of an ant that (contd. on next page)

939 (Note-2 contd, from last page.....) is slender in the middle and large at the ends). Baudh. Dh.S.III-8-33 names these two varieties. According to Jabali there are five varieties of Chandrayana viz. Yavamad haya, Pipilikamadhya, Yaticandrayana, Sarvatomukha and Sisu Chandrayana. These will be prescribed later on. Yajnavalkya says (III.326) that where no specific penance is prescribed in the Smrti texts, Chandrayana effects purification and Chandrayana may be undergone not as a penance but for the purpose of accumulating merit and that in the later case (when performed for a year) the performer enjoys the happiness of going to the world of the moon after death. Manu-221 and Gaut.27-18 state the same view about Chandrayana for accumulating of merit when the Vrata of Chandraya is performed for the sake of merit there is no tansure (vide Gaut. 27-3- 'Vapanam Vratam caret' and Haradatta thereon). Gaut. 19-20 (=Vas. 22-20) prescribes that Krechra and Chandrayana are the same penance for all sins (collectively for grave sins for lesser ones separately according to Haradatta and others). Compare Yaj.III.323, Vas, 27-21, Baudh.Dh.S.IV. 5-18 and others define day of the bright half of a month only and morsel of food (grass) moon (Paurnamasa), 15 morsbes are taken that on the first of na day. So on the 14 th of the dark half only one morsel is taken and on fast the Amavasya there is complete first. Here in the middle of the month of thirty days the largest number of morsels is taken (and so this is Yagamadhya) just as on the Paurnamasi day the moon becomes full and begins to want from the next day Here Pumamasi is in the middle of the observance as Visnupn.S.476 If one says. begins the Vrata on the first tithi of the dark half he reduces one morsel on the 1 st i. e. takes 14 morsels on that day, 13 on the second tithi of the dark half and so on. On the 14 th of the dark half he eats

940 one morsel and on the Amavasya he eats nothing. Then on the 1 st of the bright half he takes one morsel and goes on increasing the intake till on the Paurnamasi he takes 15 morsels. The month is taken in this latter case to be Purnimanta. Here in the middle of the observance there is no food taken and a large number of morsels is taken at the beginning and at the end. So this is called Pipilikamadhya. This latter is described by Vas. 23-45 and Manu XI-216. Vishnu Dh.S. 47-5-6 say Yasyamamavasya Madhye Bhavati se Pipili kamadhyah Yasya Paurnamasi sa Yavamadhyah. If there are 14 or 16 tithis in any particular Paksa (half of a month) then the number of grasas must be regulated accordingly. There are other descriptions of Chandrayana. Vide Haradatta on Gaut. 27-12-15. The Kalpataru appears to have held (explaining two verses of Jabala) that on the first of the dark half of a month 15 morsels were taken, then one morsel less was taken on each succeeding tithi; so that on Amavasya one morsel was eaten, then on the first of the bright half two morsels were eaten and one morsel was added every day so that on the 14 th of the bright half fifteen morsels were taken and there was a complete fast on Paurnamasi. But this seems to be opposed to the very idea of increase and decrease of the intake of food on the analogy of the waxing and waning of the Moon and to several Smrti texts such as Vas.23-45 and Parasara X. 2. Therefore the Pr.Prakasa (folio 58 b) finds fault with it. Chandrayana may be divided from another point of view into two varieties: (1) Mukhya (in the primary sense viz. following exactly the waxing and waning of the moon) and GAUNA (having a secondary or metapherical sense). The former is either Yavamadhya or Pipilika tanumadhya), while the latter is of four kinds, viz. Samanya, RsiChandrayana, Sisu-chandrayana and Yatichandrayana. The last two will

941 be described later. The Samanya (or Sarva tomukha) consist in eating only 240 morsels of sacrificial food in a month of 30 days, distributing them according to ones chice (not necessarily in imitation of the phases of the moon) as stated by Manu in XI-220, Baudh.IV.-5-21, Yaj.III-324, and the Mit. (on Yaj.III.324), the Madana-Parijata and other works. Here the penance though it is not regulated by the phases of the moon is called Chandrayana for the purpose of prescribing the same procedure and observances in it as in the Chandrayana which follows the phases of the moon. Here the Mimamsa, rule of Kundapayinam-ayana applies. From the words of Gautama 27.12-15 it appears that he envisaged a Chandrayana of 32 days (Pipilikamadhya) or 31 days, when he says that the performer should fast on the 14 th of the bright half, eat fifteen morsels on the full moon-day, then reduee it by one morsel so that Amavasya and then on the there is a total fast on the first of the bright half one morsel is taken, so that there is a total fast on the Amavasya and then on the first of the bright half one morsel is taken until on the full moon 15 morsels are taken. Thus from the 14 th of the bright half (when there is a complete fast) to the full moon of the succeeding month there are in all 32 days and the penance is of the Pipilika-madhya type. As regards the size of the morsels, different views are expressed. Gaut.27-10 and Visnu Dh.S. 47,2 prescribed that the size of a morsel shall be such as not to cause a distoration of the month (while swollowing it). Yaj.III-323 allows that the morsels may be as large as the egg of a peahen, and Parasara K. 3, prescribes the size of a hen's egg and Sankha that of an undried amalaka fruit (myrobalan). The Mit. explains that Gautama's words apply to boys and young people and that the other sizes confer an option according to the capacity (Sakti) of the man undergoing penance. The procedure of Chandrayana

942 is described in Gaut. 272-11, Baud. III-8, Manu I-221-275, VrddhaGautama, Chapter-16 and other works. The one given by Gautama, being probably the oldest among Dharmasastra works, is here set out. 0 The general rules prescribed for the Krechra penance in Gaut. 26, 6-11 are applicable to Chandrayana also. If it is performed as a penance the performer must tonsure his hair and observe a fast on the day preceeding the full moon. He offers libatations of water, oblations of clarified butter, consecrates the sacrificial food and worships the moon, reciting apyasva (Rg.1-91-17) 'San te payamsi Rg.1.91.18). He shall offer clarified butter reciting the four (RKS) beginning with 'Yaddeva' Devahedanam' (Vaj.S.20-14 or Tai.Br. II. 6-6.1). These four together with the preceeding are seven oblations of clarified butter that have to be offered. At the end of the offering of clarified butter he shall offer sacred fuel while reciting the (eight) texts beginning with 'Devakr tasya' (Vaj.S. VIII-13). Each mouthful must be corsecrated by (mentally) reciting one of the following words (Om bhuh, bhuvah, svah, tapah truth, fame, prosperity,, vigour, refreshment, strength, tustre, brightness, saul, dharma and siva) or he may consecrated all of them or once saying (adoration 'Svaha'. The sacrificial food must be one of the following boiled rice, food obtained by begging, ground barley, milk, grain separated from the husk, barley gruel, vegetables, sour milk, clarified butter, roots, fruits and water. Among these each succeeding one is preferable to that enumerated earlier. 3. For example smrtimuktaphalam of vyaghra as follows:page-203, quotes the special view caturagulamutsedham caturamgulamayatam | elada grasa pramanam tu vyaghrena paribhasitam ||