Varaha Purana 65.2: Adhyaya 65, Shloka 2
The Sovereignty Vow and the Cycle of Tithi-Based Observances
कार्तिकस्य तु मासस्य दशमी शुक्लपक्षिका । तस्यां नक्ताशनो नित्यं दिक्षु शुद्धबलिं हरेत् ॥ ६५.२ ॥
kārtikasya tu māsasya daśamī śuklapakṣikā | tasyāṁ naktāśano nityaṁ dikṣu śuddhabaliṁ haret || 65.2 ||
ในวันทศมีแห่งปักษ์สว่าง เดือนการ์ติกะ พึงฉันอาหารเฉพาะยามค่ำเป็นนิตย์ และถวายบะลีอันบริสุทธิ์แก่ทิศทั้งหลาย
Varāha
Kārtika-śukla-daśamī: observe naktāśana (eat only at night) and offer a pure bali in the cardinal directions.
Purification and directional auspiciousness; supports success in undertakings through ritual alignment with the quarters.
Kārtika, bright fortnight, Daśamī (repeated/regularly as stated)
Purity (śuddhi) and auspicious support from the quarters; foundation for later stated digvijaya (directional success).
Offering bali to the directions frames the body and cosmos as a yajña-field; the quarters become guardians of order (ṛta), echoing Purāṇic cosmology where Viṣṇu’s sustaining power stabilizes space.
Directions (diśaḥ) as yajña-boundaries; bali as appeasement/installation of spatial deities; naktāśana as tapas that ‘concentrates’ the sacrifice into a regulated time.
Discipline of senses (niyama) and sanctification of space suggest aligning individual action (karma) with cosmic order; the ‘quarters’ symbolize the manifold field of experience brought under sattvic regulation.
Purity and regulated living make ordinary acts (eating, offering) into sacred action.
Adopt time-restricted diet and simple offerings to structure life around restraint, cleanliness, and reverence for cosmic order.
65.65.3-6 (mantra to directions; bali; naktāśana; digvijaya; ekādaśī-year vow)
FAQs
It reflects the Purāṇic codification of vrata-practices tied to the lunar calendar, illustrating how late-classical Sanskrit texts systematized household observances (dietary restraint and simple offerings) as part of normative ritual culture.
No specific toponym is named in this verse; instead, it refers generically to the ritual ‘directions’ (dikṣu), a common spatial framework in South Asian ritual manuals rather than a single identifiable site.
The verse promotes disciplined restraint (naktāśana—limiting eating to night) and ritual cleanliness (śuddha-bali), presenting self-regulation and orderly practice as key elements of the observance.
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