Rigveda Upakarma is the day Rigvedi households, following the Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra, change the poonal and take up the study of the Veda again. The sutra places this new beginning in the rains, when the herbs of the season have come up. The mahasankalpam and the avabhritha bath atone for the faults of the year. Savitradhi tarpanam honours the deities of the Veda, and Vedarambham opens the samhita again at Agnim ile. How the day is fixed: The day is the one on which Shravana nakshatra falls in the lunar month of Shravana. It is not fixed by Shravana Purnima. Ashvalayana also allows Shukla Panchami with Hasta, but the date shown here does not follow that option. Keep in mind: Nakshatra start and end times change with your place. Check in your local pañcāṅga when Shravana begins and ends in your own town. This year: The 2027 date shown here is worked out from sunrise at the place you chose, so in another city the same day can fall a day earlier or later. Morning on the old thread: Morning sandhya is kept on the old poonal. A brahmachari who keeps the fire does samidadhanam with palasha or peepal sticks, often after a tonsure and a second bath. Brahmayajnam follows on the old thread, from Gayatri and Agnim ile purohitam through the opening lines of the other Vedas, with water offered to the gods, the rishis and the pitrus. Those whose father is alive leave out personal pitru tarpanam. Mahasankalpam and Savitradhi tarpanam: The mahasankalpam names place and time and asks atonement for the year, and the avabhritha bath follows before fresh clothes are worn. Savitradhi tarpanam is a limb of its own, not the rishi list of Brahmayajnam. Water mixed with til and rice goes first to nine deities, Savitri, Brahma, Shraddha, Medha, Prajna, Dharana, Anumati, Chandas and Satya. It then goes to twenty mandala deities beginning with Agni, and last to the Brahmayajnam deities, as the paddhati directs. The new thread and Vedarambham: After the Upakarma sankalpam the new poonal is worn with yajnopavitam paramam pavitram, and the old thread is given to water. Vedarambham opens the samhita again at Agnim ile, whose rishi is Madhuchchandas, whose deity is Agni and whose metre is Gayatri. Some paddhatis put the new thread on before Savitradhi tarpanam. Worth remembering: Avani Avittam is the Yajurveda upakarma on Shravana Purnima, and it follows a different rule. Some Rigvedi sittings close with Gayatri japam that same day, but the Gayatri Japam day in the pañcāṅga is the morning after Yajurveda Upakarma. Samaveda Upakarma comes later, on Hasta in the sangava hours in Bhadrapada. Each Rigvedi house keeps upakarma by its own paddhati and kulācāra. When the new thread is worn, the order in which the rishis are remembered in Brahmayajnam, and whether the sitting ends with Gayatri japam all differ from book to book. Know what the pañcāṅga says, and follow the order the elders of your own house have kept.
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