Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Página 746

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ADVANTAGES TO BE GAINED
Ordinary food may be taken on the twelfth day in the
afternoon, but not before, on pain of forfeiting for a hundred
generations all the blessings which should flow from these
ceremonies
l
.
Those who faithfully observe the
fast of the Eka-dasi in
the manner described will make sure of salvation. If any
one has killed a Brahmin or a cow, taken away the wife or
property of another, committed fornication with the wife of
his guru, drunk intoxicating liquors, caused abortion in a
pregnant woman all these and other similar sins, no matter
how numerous or heinous they may be, will be entirely ab-
solved by the fast of the Eka-dasi, and by sacrifices offered
to Vishnu on that day.
;
Such, in brief, is what Markandeya teaches us.
Before leaving this subject I ought to mention that the
precepts contained in these instructions are not strictly kept,
except by a very small number of devotees. The Eka-dasi,
it is true, is kept as a holy day by Brahmins, and by all
persons who have the right to wear the triple cord, and even
by a few Sudras of good position, but they content themselves
with spending the day in performing a few religious rites and
Nevertheless they all abstain from eating
in amusements.
Towards evening, however, they have a meal com-
rice.
posed of cakes and fruit, which greatly modifies and simplifies
the severity and length of the fast prescribed by the Vishnu-
pur ana.
APPENDIX
III
Siva-Batri, or Siva's Night.
The feast of Siva-Ratri is celebrated with great ceremony,
This is what we read in the
especially by the Sivaites.
Skanda-purana on the subject
There is in Jambu-Dwipa a large town known by the name
of Varanasi, where dwelt a man belonging to the boya or
huntsman caste, who was short of stature, very dark in com-
One
plexion, and of a most violent and passionate temper.
day when out hunting in the woods, as was his wont, he killed
:
This is incorrect. Those who fast
fast before sunrise on the twelfth day.
1
on the eleventh day break their
Ed.