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OF THE HINDUS.
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mid-day ablutions, to decorate it, and with prayers from the Vedas invite the sun to take his place in it. Worship is then to be addressed to the sun, and the worshipper is to prefer whatever desire he may have formed, which the sun will assuredly grant him. The night is to be spent with music, singing, and rejoicing, and in the morning ablution is to be repeated; presents are to be made to the Brahmans, and the car with all its appurtenances is to be presented to the Guru or spiritual preceptor. This is probably an ancient rite, coeval with the development of the institutions of the Vedas.
Various other appellations are specified as belonging to this same lunar day, as the Jayanti Saptami, the victorious seventh; the Maha Saptamí, the great seventh, and others; but the characteristic observance is the same, and whatever the designation, the worship of the sun is the prominent ceremony of the seventh of the light half of Mágha.
The same may be said, however, of the seventh lunar day throughout the year, chiefly of one seventh in each fortnight, that of the moon's increase; but also of the seventh day of the wane. Besides which, there are particular sevenths to which the concurrence of other circumstances, such as its falling on a Sunday*, or when the moon enters certain mansions,
[A Riatt Hari
सप्तमो विजया नाम तत्र दत्तं महाफलम् ॥ From the Bhavishyapurána, quoted in the Sabdakalpadruma p. 5891, a.]
