All the nine grahas and the twenty-seven nakshatras are worshipped on the occasion of the Griha-Shanti ceremony, which is performed before occupying a newly erected building.[287]
It is considered inauspicious to hold a marriage ceremony while Shukra (Venus) is invisible. In such a case, however, the ceremony may be performed after setting up and worshipping a small golden image of the planet.
Of the stars, the constellation of saptarshi is perhaps the one most often worshipped. Its worship forms a part of the ceremonies performed on the occasion of investing boys with the sacred thread[293] and also of the ceremonies of marriage. The worship of the saptarshi on marriage occasions is believed to be an attestation of the marriage, and to secure the benign care of the saptarshi for the couple. The form of worship is sometimes as follows: a red and white piece of cloth is stretched on the ground, bearing an image of the saptarshi over it; wheat and rice are scattered over the cloth, a ghi-lamp is lighted, and red lac and flowers are offered to the image.[294] Another form of worship is to mark seven red-lac-dots on a pātla or a wooden stool, and to place seven pice and seven betel-nuts thereon. After worshipping the seven pice, the bridal pair are made to take four turns round the stool, touching the stool with their great toes at every turn. A proverb runs to the effect that, whatever may happen to the couple, still the seven pice of satpati (i.e., the ceremony described) are secure.[295] A third process is to form seven small piles of kamod,[296] on each of which, successively, the bride places her right foot while the bridegroom removes each pile one by one.[297]
The fifth day of the bright half of Bhādrapad (the eleventh month of the Gujarati Hindus) is observed as a day of worship in honour of the saptarshi group. People observe a fast on that day. Brāhmans set up seven chāts[298] in honour of the seven sages, adding an eighth in honour of Arundhatī, the wife of Vasishtha, and worship them by shodashopachār (i.e. sixteen-fold ceremonial). The worship is said to secure felicity for departed souls.[299]
The saptarshi are also annually worshipped by Brāhmans on cocoanut-day (the 15th day of the bright half of Shrāvan) on the occasion of changing their sacred threads. Hindu seamen also worship the constellation on the same day.[300]
In the performance of the Nīl-parvān ceremony, which is held to propitiate the spirits of departed ancestors, and which requires a calf and a heifer to be married, an entertainment being simultaneously given to one hundred and eight Brāhmans, and on the occasion of Vastu or the ceremonies performed before or at the time of occupying a newly-built house, burnt offerings and worship are offered to the saptarshi.[301]
Every Brāhman must offer arghyas[302] to, and worship, the agastya constellation, in a hut of darbha[303] and kāsada,[303] within seven days from the date of its appearance. Failure to make this offering brings pollution on him for seven months, and disqualifies him from performing any of the rites or ceremonies prescribed by the Shastras.[301]
Married couples are made to look at the Pole star immediately after the Hymenal knot is tied by the priest, in the hope that they may be as long-lived or as inflexible or unmoved by the ups and downs of life.[295]
The twelfth day after the death of a person, known as Tārā-bāras (or the star-twelfth) is kept as the day of star-worship by the relatives of the deceased, when one member of the family observes a fast on that day in honour of the deceased, and takes food only after worshipping the stars at night. It is customary on this day to give up the use of bronze vessels and to give them away in charity.[304]
Just as persons carrying or accompanying a corpse to the cemetery are considered sutaki (under ceremonial impurity), so those who witness this rite are also considered unclean: but they are purified by a sight of the stars.[305]