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8
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
ality (being an embodiment of the forms of the three gods of the Hindu Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvar)-the embodiment of the three Vedas, the giver of happiness and the abode of God.
After his toilet a high-caste Hindu should take a bath and offer morning prayers and arghyas to the sun, The Trikāla.Sandhyā is enjoined by the Shastras on every Brahman, ie., every Brahman should perform the Sandhya thrice during the day: in the morning, at mid-day and in the evening. The Sandhya is the prayer a Brahman offers, sitting in divine meditation, when he offers three arghyas to the sun and recites the Gayatri mantra 108 times."
The arghya is an offering of water in a spoon half filled with barley seeds, sesamum seeds, sandal ointment, rice, and white flowers. In offering the arghya the right foot is folded below the left, the spoon is lifted to the forehead and is emptied towards the sun after reciting the Gayatri mantra.1 If water is not available for
offering the arghyas, sand may serve the purpose. But the sun must not be deprived of his arghyas.
The Gayatri is the most sacred mantra in honour of the sun, containing, as it does, the highest laudations of him.5 A Brahman ought to recite this mantra 324 times every day. Otherwise he incurs a sin as great as the slaughter of a cow. Accordingly a Rudrakshmālā, or a rosary of 108 Rudraksh beads, is used in connecting the number of Gayatris recited. It is exclusively the right of the twice-born to recite the Gayatri. None else is authorised to recite or even to hear a word of it. Neither females nor Shudras ought to catch an echo of even a single syllable of the Gayatri mantras.
A ceremony, called Suryopasthän, in which a man has to stand facing the sun with his hands stretched upwards at an angle towards.
Mr. N. M. Dave, Sanka,
* Mr. K. D. Desai.
the sun, is performed as a part of the sandhya,"
Of the days of the week, Ravivar, or Sunday is the most suitable for Sun worship10. Persons wishing to secure wealth, goodhealth and a happy progeny, especially people suffering from disorders caused by heat and from diseases of the eyes, barren women, and men anxious for victory on the battlefield, weekly observe vows in honour of the sun, and the day on which the vow is to be kept is Sunday.11 It is left to the devotee to fix the number of Sundays on which he will observe the vrat, and he may choose to observe all the Sundays of the year. 12 On such days the devotees undergo ceremonial purifications by means of baths and the putting on of clean garments, occupy a reserved clean seat, light a ghi-lamp and recite the Aditya-hridaya-patha, which is the prescribed mantra for Sun worship.13 Then follows the Nyasa, (ar) in the recitation of which the devotee has to make certain gestures (or to perform physical ceremo nials). First the tips of all the four fingers are made to touch the thumb as is done in counting. Then the tips of the fingers are made to touch the palm of the other hand, Then one hand is laid over the other. Then the fingers are made to touch the heart, the head, the eyes, and the hair in regular order. The right hand is then put round the read and made to smite the left.13 An ashtadala or eight-cornered figure is drawn in gulal,
2 The Deputy Educational Inspector, Gohelwad. Mr. Jethalal Anupram, Schoolmaster, Aman. Mr. K. D. Desai,
The Deputy Educational Inspector, Gohelwad.
7 Mr. N. D. Vara, Rajpara,
s Mr. K. D. Desai,
Mr. M. D. Vyas, Shastri, Bhayavadur. 10 Mr. K. P. Joshi, Limbdi, and L. D. Mehta, Mota Devalia. 11 Mr. N. D. Vora, Rajpara, and Mr. B. K. Dave, Kotda-Sangani, 12 Mr. B. K. Dave, Kotda-Sangani. 13 Mr. Nandlal Kalidas, Schoolmaster, Chhatrāsā
