pachai maamalai pol mene

Friday, July 14, 2023

fixation about fixing dates...



When the season for any particular Festival or Ritual starts, we see a lot of discussion regarding the procedures, dates, methods, and so on..
And the tone and tenor in some posts would indicate that what is stated by the person making that post is the ultimate (rule or Fatwa),
the Gospel Truth.. the last word..
And there will be lots and lots of Likes, awful and so on.. And there would also be some requests for clarification on a particular issue and the author would be making his prophetic clarifications from God knows where..
Are there really such Messiahs in the Web or even in Hinduism? Are these people the Amnaya Gurus or Vidvat Parishad.. who are authorised to speak for and on behalf of any set of Hindus?
I saw a post and expressed by my views in the matter.. Just repeating for my own future reference..
"The dates should be reckoned according to the Panchangam (alamanac)traditionally followed by the Individual or his purohita...And also the group and place where the performer is living at present"
In these matters, local traditions are more important.. and more binding..
For example, In Palakkad, a very major settlement of Tamil brahmins, there are many agraharams, and dates can vary even according to the agraharams..
( For example Pallipuram etc follow slightly varying traditions)
That does not mean one group is correct and the other is wrong..
Then views in Panchangams vary..
PRR mama says he is following madathu panchangam.. So what he says can be right for followers of that Panchangam..
( We have to understand, all brahmins do not follow one single Matam.. )
The major panchangam followed in Palakkad Smartha Agraharams is Sriranga Vakya Panchangam ( strangely the Panchangam is calculated for the use in the Srirangam Temple.. the Capital of Vaishnavism of Vishishtaadvaitam school)
And therefore, the publications in Website can be just indicative, but are subject to local variations..And cannot be accurate.. I state this with due respect to all concerned..
And in the Mantrams for Mahasankalpam etc, there are really no hard and fast rules..
The rituals have two parts..
The part where we are just describing the things we do in Sanskrit as if in a running commentary..
and then the mantrams we use for some specialized rituals, especially when they are quoted from Vedas..
The second part will be common everywhere, and it is expected to be common according the the Vedic Shakha and Sootram followed... But the Sankalpam, and Karikas can vary according to the Sootras, and local traditions for the same Sakha even..
So it is not very useful to take any version as gospel truth.. and accurate..
The systems have been evolved through the visionary efforts of sages like Apastambha, Ashvalayana,,, Yajnavalkya.. etc and has been carried orally over at least thirty centuries ( I state this with reference to Apastambha) and so the local Pandits would have evolved their own traditions and none of the Web Gurus or priests appear to be great enough to justify or clarify..
In fact we are trivializing our traditions by some such attempts
Even the priests of today who are professionals would think a lot before issuing such clarification, if they are sincere to the traditions..

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