Raining Blood: rudhiravar ṣa

[Michael Brattus Jones]

The specific text Prof. Vasudeva mentioned, the Kr̥ṣikarmavivecana, is  
also known as Kr̥ṣipaddhati, Kr̥ṣisaṃgraha, and the Kr̥ṣiparāśaraḥ. It  
is under the last of these names that a critical edition was published  
in 1960 by Girija Prasanna Majumdar and Sures Chandra Bannerji,  
through the Asiatic Society's Bibliotheca Indica (Work 285). I have a  
mostly un-proofed unicode transliteration that I'd be happy to share,  
although a preliminary search for specifically red rains came up dry.
Yours,
Mike B. Jones (theojijo at yahoo.com)
PhD student, UT Austin

From: Som Dev Vasudeva <somadevah at MAC.COM>
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Sent: Tue, November 16, 2010 1:51:10 PM
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Raining Blood: rudhiravarṣa

Some further references worth pursing:

Atharvavedapariśiṣṭas.txt:3860: (AVParis_72,3.4) rajovarṣam  
upalavarṣaṃ dadhimadhughṛtakṣīravarṣaṃ majjārudhira varṣati /
The same but cited with variants in the Kauśikapaddhati :13870:yadapi  
pariśiṣṭeṣu paṭhyate sarve gṛhe praviṣṭe sarvamevālpakaṃ dṛṣṭvā  
sarvasammito vāyuṃ sambhrame udakaprādurbhāve gamaneṣu  
dhanuḥsandhyolkāḥ pariveṣāḥ vidyuddaṇḍāśaniparipraparighārddhe  
nirghāte  
rajovarṣa-upalavarṣadakṣimadhughṛtavarṣamajjārudhiravarṣatihīnagabhastī dve  
mārge vidyut vittakṣaye somasya kṣaye pūrṇapūraṇe kṣayasyavabhāsā  
sadyopararātrādi digdāhopadhūpanagrahavaiṣamyamārohaṇamākramaṇaṃ  
gandharvanagaramārutaprakopaḥ  
tithikaraṇamuhūrtanakṣatrayogadhruvakakāni grahādīnāṃ samaviyogaḥ /

Rāmāyaṇa 6.115.22ab: rajovarṣaṃ samudbhūtaṃ paśya vālukinīṃ prati /

Rājataraṅgiṇī of Śrīvara 1:1059: vṛṣṭyā saha rajovarṣam apatad gaganād bhuvi /

There are also substantial discussions of clouds in works of  
Kṛṣiśāstra see Wojtilla, Gyula, 2006 “History of Kṛṣiśāstra, a  
History of Indian Literature on Traditional Agriculture.” One such  
work I recently had the fortune to read that has abundant discussions  
of seasonal rainfall and prognostication was the Kṛśikarmavivecana. It  
seemed quite closely related to the little studied genre of “Tantric  
meteorology” such as can be found in the Bhairavīyameghamālā, that it  
might even be best identified as a separate genre: Tantric agriculture  
(?). I remember seeing an MS of this in the Wellcome Institute in  
London but cannot now find my photocopies of it.

Best,

Somadeva Vasudeva

On Nov 16, 2010, at 12:05 PM, Bill Mak wrote:

> For portents, your best source would be a jyotiṣa text like  
> Bṛhatsaṃhīta. I recall reading something about strange rain and  
> bloody water. Try Ch.45 utpātādhyāyaḥ and you may find something  
> there.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Bill M. Mak
>
> University of Kyoto
> Graduate School of Humanities, Faculty of Letters
> Department of Indological Studies
> Yoshida-Honmachi, Sakyo-ku,
> Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan
>
> bill.m.mak at gmail.com
>
> On 2010/11/16, at 21:15, James Hegarty wrote:
>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> Has anyone come across this term (rudhiravarṣa) outside of the war  
>> books of the Mahābhārata?
>>
>> I am especially interested where it occurs as a portent of future  
>> violence etc. I am aware of its use in Buddhist accounts of the  
>> birth of Ajātaśatru, but that is about it!
>>
>> I have the wörterbuch entry, but the information here is somewhat  
>> lacking in context, by its very nature.
>>
>> Can anyone help me?
>>
>> With All Best Wishes,
>>
>> James Hegarty
>> Cardiff University