Prayaschitta (Atonement)

Definition

Prayaschitta, also called parihara, is atonement — prescribed religious acts through which the weight of harmful karma carried over from past lives may be eased. It can include mantra-japa (repeating a sacred phrase), homa or havan (a fire offering), daana (charity or gifts), and worship of the divine. Prasna Marga prescribes it alongside medical treatment, since that text holds disease to be the fruit of sins committed in past births. The Karma Vipak Samhita, framed as a conversation between Shiva and Parvati, closes each nakshatra-pada section with one of these atonements.

In Tradition

Both works share a premise that runs deeper than the definition: affliction and disease are read as the ripening of karma or sin from a past birth, and the atonement is meant to go hand in hand with ordinary worldly action — not offered as a guaranteed, mechanical cure. Prasna Marga says both the visible cause and the unseen karmic cause have to be addressed, and the Karma Vipak Samhita presents its atonements as sacred remedial doctrine.

In Practice

In the Karma Vipak Samhita, each nakshatra-pada story closes with a prayaschitta that usually combines mantra-japa, a homa (fire offering), worship and the donation of a votive statue, and charity to Brahmins. The text says these are most often taken up to restore progeny, continue the family line, and remove disease. Its translator renders the layered programme as also including pilgrimage and observance, which Shiva tells Parvati will burn off the paapa karma (bad karma) and let a person beget long-lived sons. In Prasna Marga the named remedies are medicines, gifts (dana), japas, homas, and worship of the divine, applied so that for every disease both the visible cause (drishta) and the unseen karmic cause (adrishta) are addressed.

Historical Origin

This entry draws on two classical works, each through its modern translator. The Karma Vipak Samhita (Chapter 3 onward, the Shiva-Parvati dialogue), translated by Ajay D.N, closes its chapters with atonements. Prasna Marga (Part I, Chapter XIII, translated with notes by B.V. Raman) prescribes prayaschitta alongside medical treatment and records that the sins and their palliatives were elaborated by Sayanacharya in his treatise Karma Vipaka.

Further Reading

• Ajay D.N, Karma Vipak Samhita
• B.V. Raman, Prasna Marga