Mahāśivarātri

๏ เดือนสามรังเริ่มแก้ว กลศรี

สมสอดบุษบาดวง ดอกสร้อย

วันยามโยคราตรี ไตรเพท

โอ้เมื่อวันวางช้อย ช่อมาลย์ ฯ

Third month, my gem, you’d start to show your skills

of weaving flowers in garlands beautiful

on Triple Veda night, auspicious time

you once would place a spray of pretty flowers. (v. 197)

(Pg. 250 - Baker, B. and Phongpaichit, P. (2020) Kings in Love: Lilit Phra Lo and Twelve Months, Silkworm Books; Chiang Mai)

This year on Wednesday the 26th February, that is the New Moon night of the third lunar month is the auspicious festival called Mahashivaratri to Shiva, or Phra Isuan (Isvara - พระอิศวร) in Thai.

It seems likely that this was celebrated in ancient times in Thailand but has fallen out of practice in more recent centuries. For example it seems to be mentioned in the late C15th century poem Thawathotsamat (ทวาทศมาส) as one of the festivals of the third month, but is not in the lists of royal festivals mentioned in the late 17th and the 18th centuries.

There are many different practices done for this festival so only the most important will be mentioned here. Firstly it is a time for undergoing strict fasting which varies from region to region, but often consists of refraining from all food for this time period. Secondly it is normal to practice all night long and not to sleep at all during this period. Finally, ritual washing of Shiva’s idol in the form of a Linga using a variety of auspicious liquids and offerings is practiced through the night.

For the rest of this article I will reproduce the story of the encounter of the Buddha and Shiva narrated in the Lokapaññati a Pagan era text from C11-12th century Burma which is written in Pali:

© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1894-0926-11

Then one day the god Shiva met the Blessed One in the land of Himapphan. [The god] who had formerly seen the previous [miracles] at the time of the Blessed One's conception, his birth, his withdrawal from the world, his awakening, the setting in motion of the Law, etc., he who had seen and heard what was extraordinary in the double miracle performed at the foot of the Mango Tree for the men and kings who inhabited the sixteen great cities and for the divinities of the Ten Thousand Worlds, having seen the Blessed One, but having little faith, he said playfully to him: “You have great supernatural power indeed, O Gotama, you are famous among the gods and men. But I too have great supernatural power, great authority and great power. I am the master of the three worlds. Come, O Gotama, we will see which of us has greater miraculous power and greater might.”

The Blessed One knew, thanks to his knowledge of the future, that this “yakkha” of great power and who had done meritorious actions would have faith in the Buddha's teaching.

Accepting his proposal, he said: “Show, O Rudra[Shiva], what is your measure.” The latter began by saying to the Blessed One: “O Gotama, with all our strength, we will play the game of disappearing (hide and seek).” At these words, the Blessed One said: “Splendid!” Again [the god] commanded the Blessed One:

“I will disappear first. As for you, cover your eyes with your fingers.” He made this agreement with the Blessed One.

He disappeared in that very place, penetrated under the earth up to a hundred thousand strata, transformed his body magically by reducing it to the size of a tiny atom, until he had hidden it inside the hundred thousand strata, then he released the Blessed One from his promise.

Then the Blessed One saw, with his all-penetrating eye, the body of the god reduced to the size of an atom and hidden under a stratum; he placed in the palm of his hand the hundred thousand strata and spread them with the pure nail of the finger [of his] right hand until [the body of the god] was hidden only under seven strata; then he spread the [remaining] strata until the body [of the god], of the size of an atom, was hidden only by one stratum and he said: “Come out, Rudra, come out.”

And he thought: “Truly this ascetic speaks by deduction.”

Then the Blessed One knowing his thought said to him: “I know how your hands, your feet, your body, your entrails, your intestines and your heart are, even the number of your hairs and your pores, and the various aspects of your behavior.” At these words, standing in his natural form, [Mahissara=Shiva] said to the Blessed One: “You have great supernatural power, O great ascetic, you have great power.”

Having spoken thus, he said again to the Blessed One: “Hide yourself, O great ascetic, I will seek you.” The Blessed One made him make the same agreement as before: he made him hide his face with his hands; then, thanks to his supernatural power, he magically transformed his body [by reducing it] to a state more microscopic [than an atom]. Then he placed himself near the divine eyes of [Mahissara], then made the sound heard in space announcing that he was releasing him from his promise. Having heard: “Hey!”, [the god] uncovered his face, looked and did not find the place where the Blessed One was hiding. Then searching everywhere, in the depths of the caves of the mountains and in the impenetrable places of the forests, etc., until he had explored the hundred thousand strata, he did not see the Blessed One. Exploring the depths of the ocean and the bellies of the shoals of fish, he did not see the Blessed One. Exploring the domain of the nāgas, the domain of the garuda,

[searching] everywhere in the domain of the Cakkavālas, everywhere in the Cakkavala mountains [surrounding the universe], even in the six spheres of the Kāma, in the sixteen worlds of Brahma and in the other worlds, he did not see the Blessed One. Then, continuing to search, he continued his investigation until he had explored seven times; and he then uttered this exclamation:

“O great ascetic, appear!”

Having magically created a ladder made of the seven precious stones, as for the ascent of the gods, the Blessed One descended on the slope of the ladder, in his natural form, possessing the thirty-two marks of the great man, his body surrounded by a brilliant halo a fathom in radius, and performing all kinds of wonders of supernatural power. Then, having seen these wonders of supernatural power, the god's heart was filled with faith.

From that time, finding pleasure in the Buddha's teaching, he established his refuge there.

Some masters say that he has obtained refuge [in the teaching of the Buddha] until the present time, thanks to his faith in the Blessed One who has attained Nirvana.

(Pg. 131 - Denis, E. (1977) La Lokapaññati et les Idees Cosmologiques du Bouddhisme Ancien, Universite de Lille; Paris)

Detail from a Thai manuscript showing Shiva with Buddha on his head defeating the demon Tripura Asura using Visnu as an arrow and other deities as his weapons.