Vedic influence on the Sun-worship in the Puranas
by Goswami Mitali | 2018 | 68,171 words
This page relates ‘Sun-worship Vratas (30) Phala-saptami’ of the study on the Vedic influence of Sun-worship in the Puranas, conducted by Goswami Mitali in 2018. The tradition of observing Agnihotra sacrifice and the Sandhya, etc., is frequently observed among the Hindus. Another important innovation of the Sun-worship in the Puranas is the installation of the images of the Sun in the temples.—This section belongs to the series “Rituals Related to the Sun-Worship in the Puranas”.
Sun-worship Vratas (30) Phala-saptamī
The reference of the Phalasaptamīvrata is found in the Purāṇas, in worship of the Sun.[1] On the seventh day of the bright fortnight of the Bhādrapada, fast is observed and the deity Sun is worshipped. On the morning period of eighth day, the Sun-god is worshipped and donation is made towards the Brāhmaṇas with the coconut and Mātuluṅga fruits, etc., and the mantra mārtaṇḍa prīyatām is uttered.
After that the observer eats one small fruit with the mantra:
The worshipper may take only fruits to his heart’s content but nothing else. It should be done for a year. The vrata endows the worshipper with sons and grandsons.[2]
According to another reference, on the fourth, fifth and sixth day of the bright fortnight of the Bhādrapada, the performer should respectively observe ayācita, ekabhakta and fast, and worship the Sun with incense. He should sleep at night in front of the altar, on which the image of Sun is placed. On the seventh day, after worshipping the Sun, he should offer naivedya of fruits, feed Brāhmaṇas and takes food or cooked flour of rice, or wheat mixed with ghee and jaggery, etc. It should be carried on up to one year. At the end of the observance, if capable, the worshipper should donate golden fruits, a cow with calf, and so on.[3]
Again, it is found that on the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Mārgaśīrṣa, the observer observes niyamas, on sixth, he observes fast, donate a golden Lotus and a fruit with sugar with the utterance of the mantra. He should give up one kind of fruit from that day to the fifth day of dark fortnight. The worshipper continues the same for a year uttering different names of the Sun in each month. At the end of the year, he honours a Brāhmaṇa along with his wife with clothes, jar, sugar, golden Lotus and fruit. As a reward of it, the performer becomes free from sins and goes to the region of the Sun.[4]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Ibid., 1.64; 215; Matsyapurāṇa,76;Padmapurāṇa, 5.21
[2]:
Bhaviṣyapurāṇa,1.215.24-27
[3]:
Ibid., 1.64.36-61
[4]:
Matsyapurāṇa, 76; Padmapurāṇa, 5.21.249-262