Āchamanam (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

: , ') is a purification ritual performed at the beginning of more complex religious

ceremonies A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil (secular) ceremoni ...

in the

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

, which is believed to cure all physical and mental impurities.

Types of Āchamanam

There are three types of Āchamanam, namely, Śrautācamanam (

: ), Smṛtyācamanam (

: ) and Purāṇācamanam (

: ). However, in the

Sandhyavandana Sandhyavandanam (, or 'salutation during the twilight') is a mandatory religious ritual centring around the recitation of the Gayatri mantra, traditionally supposed to be performed three times a day by ''Dvija'' communities of Hindus, particula ...

ritual, there exists fourth version of āchamana, known as mantrācamana.

Śrautācamanam

In śrautācamanam, water is sipped three times and is accompanied by the recitation of the three padas of the

Gayatri Gayatri (Sanskrit: गायत्री, IAST: Gāyatrī) is the personified form of the Gayatri Mantra, a popular hymn from Vedic texts. She is also known as Savitri, and holds the title of ''Vedamata'' ('mother of the Vedas'). Gayatri is the ...

in succession. Then, 21 parts of the body are touched while the 21 mantras are recited: the nine Abliṅgas, the seven Vyahritis (the names of the

seven worlds ''Seven Worlds'' is a 1998 solo album by Eric Johnson. It contains songs recorded between 1976 and 1978 – after disbanding with his previous band The Electromagnets – that were intended to be Johnson's first solo album. Due to various disp ...

, preceded by the sacred

pranava ''Om'' (or ''Aum''; ; , ISO 15919: ''Ōṁ'') is a polysemous symbol representing a sacred sound, seed syllable, mantra, and invocation in Hinduism. Its written form is the most important symbol in the Hindu religion. It is the ess ...

Om), and the 3 padas of Gayatri siras. It is defined in ''ṣatkarma candrikā'' asKanva Sandhya Vyakshya, p. 15, Bhagavatula Lakshmipathi Sastri, Manjuvani Press, Ellore, 1914.

Smṛtyācamanam

The Smṛtyācamanam is an abridged version of the śrautācamanam. Water is sipped three times, accompanied by the ritual utterance

svāhā Svaha (Sanskrit: स्वाहा, IAST: Svāhā) is a Sanskrit term in Indian religions which refers to a goddess and also to a kind of incantation used in mantras and rituals. In Hinduism, Svaha, also referred to as Manyanti, is the Hindu ...

. Then, 9 parts of the body are touched, accompanied by recitation of the specific sutras that instruct the version of the achamana in question.

Purāṇācamanam

Purāṇācamanam is done with the 24 names of Vishnu starting with keśava, etc. The water is poured on the right hand palm, which made as gokurna sipped thrice with the first three names. Both hands are washed with the next two names. For the remaining 19 names different parts of body are ritually cleansed.

References

Notes

Rituals in Hindu worship Water and Hinduism {{Hinduism-stub