Post by radha on Apr 14, 2012 6:56:02 GMT 5.5
OM SRI GURUPYO NAMAHA:, RESPECTFUL PRANAMS TO SRI MAHA PERIVA
Shodasha upachara is a complete process of performing the rituals of puja when worshipping the deity.
Most devotees are absorbed in prayers when rituals are conducted in temples and the less religiously inclined tend to dismiss rituals as a superstitious belief, best dispensed with. Both miss out a fascinating aspect of temple rituals – especially the shodasha upachara or the offering of 16 items to the deity after the ritual bath. These have symbolic meanings as well as serve as an interesting connect for religion and politics.
Ancient Vedic hymns were high on rituals through hymns and much less through objects. While we do not have the exact century when the 16 items came to be integral part, we are relatively sure that they were very integral to the temple worship tradition from the 14th century when we have inscriptions that mention kings gifting them to temples.
The purpose
They fulfil two purposes – first they appeal to all the senses of the devotee – lamps and fire to the eyes, incense for the nose, prasadam or food to touch and eat and music for the ears. In appealing to these senses they attempt to elevate the devotee to a higher plane of consciousness where they feel good and hopefully convert that feeling to doing good deeds and thinking good thoughts as well. The other purpose is also for the objects to underline the connection between God and King.
Although a Vedic concept, the connection between God and king became pronounced in the Pallava period and after. Kings supported religion to provide them a legitimate source of power and persuasiveness with the larger community, religion benefited from royal patronage for increasingly grander and more complex temples. Temples soon became the authority for the king. They provided employment, owned land, ensured cultivation and stored grain and provided cultural entertainment – all of these duties the king was expected to perform.
Rituals in court therefore became similar to rituals in temples. So if the objects of the upachara were not meant to elevate the devotee to higher levels of consciousness they reminded the devotee that allegiance to god and king were not different.
The upachara list
The shodasha upacharas are similar for Vishnu and Siva temples with variations in the forms of the objects used. The Vaikanasa agama for Vishnu temples list 32 upacharas, and qualifies who can do them and for whom it should be done – meaning, all upacharas need not be performed for all divine or mortal beings. The full list, Asana (seat), Swagatha (welcoming), Anumana (asking permission to perform the upacharas), Padhya (washing feet with fragrant water), Achamana (lustration, this is repeated several times later), Pushpa (offering flowers), Gandha (offering sandal and other perfumes), Dhoopa (offering incense), Deepa (ritual waving of a lamp), Arghya (fragrant water to wash hands), Snana (bathe with fragrant water), Plotha (cleaning the wet body of Lord with a soft cotton cloth), Vastra (presenting garments), Uthreeya (presenting an upper garment), Yagnopavita (presenting an upper garment/ sacred thread), Havis (offering food i.e., rice), Paneeya (offering water to drink), Thamboola (betel leaves after the meal), Bali (offering water, flowers and food for the guardians of the lord, his temple and other divine souls in his presence), Pranama (namaskara), Dakshina (gift of gold or silver with thamboola) and Pushpanjali (saluting with flowers).
The Pancharathra tradition has a list of 128 upacharas and include a separate set when the deity travels. This includes paduka, chariot, horse and elephant. Complex rules govern which deity receives how many and what and also who gives it to them.
The upacharas in the Pancharathra tradition and in Kerala are done mostly with gestures of the hands, like in dance mudhras.
The frequently found list –
Dhoopa– is Benzoin resin that is obtained from the bark of several species of trees in the genus Styrax. A few spoons of the roughly crushed powder are added to hot coal embers and they smoke as they disintegrate. The fragrance is strong and heady. The receptacles of the coals were large, shallow cups on an inverted s horizontally placed. Like other objects for upacharas, wealthy devotees with access to master craftsmen could sponsor elaborate ones that were engraved and had sheet metal inserted in the joints with engraved images of animals.
Different types of Deepam
Deepa or waving a lamp lit is an integral part of the upachara. For fire was the only means of light in the past and because of its symbolism of removing ignorance. As a consequence several types of lamps evolved – those that were stationary (a fine example from the Chola period can be seen in the Government Museum, Madras), those that were suspended from the ceiling and those that were held in the hand. Those held in the hand had the lamp in the front, the horizontal ‘s' that served as two base pedestals. The space behind the lamp and the rear base had separate icons cast and fixed. Icons included a five-headed cobra, then called the naga deepa. The cobra has been a symbol of fertility whose worship in the lesser Hindu traditions was absorbed in the Sanskrit tradition.
It could be an elephant, the gaja deepa where the elephant symbolises royalty, the horse, also a symbol of speed and velour, became the ashwa deepa. Siva temples had rishaba, Siva's mount. They also had the Purushamriga, an animal with the head of a man/sage. There is a minor reference to this ardent Siva devotee in the Mahabharata. In some temples, these icons were a similar pedestal without the lamp, in which case they were ritually shown to the deity much like a King would inspect his army and check if they were all in the best of condition.
Vishnu temples had a unique Kurma deepa, where the tortoise had in its rear a handle. The carapace of the tortoise had five small holes through which the wick was inserted. Falsely considered an ill omen, the tortoise is considered a symbol of stability and even today in Kerala, wooden seats are made in the same shape for use in Vedic rituals. Such rare lamps may have also been much more of the whim of an aesthetic devotee and a master craftsman than a specific textual reference that insists a temple having this lamp.
Most of these lamps have gone – auctioned off by temples or removed by unscrupulous collectors. What remains are the adukkudeepa, where each platter has several wicks in a circle and then there are smaller levels of platters, always of an odd number. The other lamp used in the end is the Kumbha arathi, this is waved in front by the priest today but was once reserved for the devadasi of the temple who would sing special songs as she did it and finally place the deepa near Bali peeta. This ensured that the ‘evil eye' cast on the deity was removed in this process. The Kumbha arathi is a pot with one upright wick at the top.
Poorna kumbha is a metal pot with sacred water that has in its mouth a cluster of mango leaves. This is carried by the host in both hands and shown in front of the visiting dignitary. Agamas don't seem to mention this as an upachara for the god and this is more for honoured guests – royalty or ascetics.
Pancha thattu – These are found in Siva temples and used particularly in the evening ritual. They are placed and then shown in front of the deity. Each of them is a metal plate with a wick - Ishanam (North East/ upwards), Thathpurusham (East), Agoram (south), Vamadevam (North), Sathyojathi (west). At the centre is one for Sadasiva, this alone is a metal pot with a single wick in the centre. They represent the five aspects of Siva and signify his universal presence.
Kannadi – a handheld mirror. The mirror is twisted in a decorative fashion in front of the processional deity after the decoration is complete, symbolically allowing the deity to admire himself/herself and ‘check' if the decorations are in order. The traditional mirrors were polished metal discs with a slender rod for the handle. Today, modern glass mirrors are used.
Kodai (umbrella) – has long been a symbol of royalty. The winning king always cut of the umbrella of the defeated king. As an upachara, a smaller metal umbrella is shown to the deity. In procession, the sunlight or rain must never fall on the deity and therefore one or even two large umbrellas with flat tops are used. Even in the case of Vishnu when riding a horse vahanam at breakneck speed, a golden umbrella is carried with the vahanam and the deity in temples such as Srirangam during the vedupari festival.
Chamaram – flywhisks come from the manes of horses and a pair is waved on either side during processions. Many of these were in Chola times made with handles of gold.
Visiri – a fan, either a real one of cloth or a ritual one of metal are waved for the deity. In the Nanguneri temple, the fan is a large one made of a palm frond (thala brundham).
Surutti– or Vyajanam is a teardrop shaped metal or cloth borne on a long rod. The face has the symbol of the deity and a pair is carried on either side of the procession to show the royal status of the deity. Those who bear it are called edupadi.
Veda parayanam – Recitation of the Vedas a key upachara. They are the most sacred texts for the religion. Also in this list is the recitation of the ‘Dravida Veda,' the 4000 divyaprabhandam and the thevaram for Siva temples. In some temples, there is an interesting order. The Tamil saints sing of seeing God, whereas in Vedic hymns, the presence of god is inferred. Therefore in procession Tamil recitations take precedence in some temples!
Naadham–music. Deserving greater focus, many instruments exclusively for temple use are largely forgotten today. The Tiruvarur temple is probably the one with the most complex and comprehensive music traditions – different ragas for different days, and points when the deity is in procession and for the various rituals.
Natyam – Dance was once one of the most important offerings with the devadasi community but today is largely absent. Several dance dramas were written for staging in temples and all of these are lost today, the enactment of the Kaisiki Puranam in Tirukurungudi is an exception though, since it is a dance drama. Several medieval dance and drama texts by kings such as Shahaji and Amarasimha languish in libraries for want of revival.
Today, with most temples having a smaller number of devotees or having devotees not always familiar with the Sanskrit languages, many of the hymns that need to be said when the upachara is performed have been lost. The God-Ruler connection continues but in a democracy, it is confined to political posters! The only purpose for these upacharas therefore seem to be to teach us to enjoy a feast for the senses and use that elevated level of consciousness to propel us to be better human beings
Source Today's HINDU news paper.
Perhaps this article may be of interest to some who are performing pujas
Shodasha upachara is a complete process of performing the rituals of puja when worshipping the deity.
Most devotees are absorbed in prayers when rituals are conducted in temples and the less religiously inclined tend to dismiss rituals as a superstitious belief, best dispensed with. Both miss out a fascinating aspect of temple rituals – especially the shodasha upachara or the offering of 16 items to the deity after the ritual bath. These have symbolic meanings as well as serve as an interesting connect for religion and politics.
Ancient Vedic hymns were high on rituals through hymns and much less through objects. While we do not have the exact century when the 16 items came to be integral part, we are relatively sure that they were very integral to the temple worship tradition from the 14th century when we have inscriptions that mention kings gifting them to temples.
The purpose
They fulfil two purposes – first they appeal to all the senses of the devotee – lamps and fire to the eyes, incense for the nose, prasadam or food to touch and eat and music for the ears. In appealing to these senses they attempt to elevate the devotee to a higher plane of consciousness where they feel good and hopefully convert that feeling to doing good deeds and thinking good thoughts as well. The other purpose is also for the objects to underline the connection between God and King.
Although a Vedic concept, the connection between God and king became pronounced in the Pallava period and after. Kings supported religion to provide them a legitimate source of power and persuasiveness with the larger community, religion benefited from royal patronage for increasingly grander and more complex temples. Temples soon became the authority for the king. They provided employment, owned land, ensured cultivation and stored grain and provided cultural entertainment – all of these duties the king was expected to perform.
Rituals in court therefore became similar to rituals in temples. So if the objects of the upachara were not meant to elevate the devotee to higher levels of consciousness they reminded the devotee that allegiance to god and king were not different.
The upachara list
The shodasha upacharas are similar for Vishnu and Siva temples with variations in the forms of the objects used. The Vaikanasa agama for Vishnu temples list 32 upacharas, and qualifies who can do them and for whom it should be done – meaning, all upacharas need not be performed for all divine or mortal beings. The full list, Asana (seat), Swagatha (welcoming), Anumana (asking permission to perform the upacharas), Padhya (washing feet with fragrant water), Achamana (lustration, this is repeated several times later), Pushpa (offering flowers), Gandha (offering sandal and other perfumes), Dhoopa (offering incense), Deepa (ritual waving of a lamp), Arghya (fragrant water to wash hands), Snana (bathe with fragrant water), Plotha (cleaning the wet body of Lord with a soft cotton cloth), Vastra (presenting garments), Uthreeya (presenting an upper garment), Yagnopavita (presenting an upper garment/ sacred thread), Havis (offering food i.e., rice), Paneeya (offering water to drink), Thamboola (betel leaves after the meal), Bali (offering water, flowers and food for the guardians of the lord, his temple and other divine souls in his presence), Pranama (namaskara), Dakshina (gift of gold or silver with thamboola) and Pushpanjali (saluting with flowers).
The Pancharathra tradition has a list of 128 upacharas and include a separate set when the deity travels. This includes paduka, chariot, horse and elephant. Complex rules govern which deity receives how many and what and also who gives it to them.
The upacharas in the Pancharathra tradition and in Kerala are done mostly with gestures of the hands, like in dance mudhras.
The frequently found list –
Dhoopa– is Benzoin resin that is obtained from the bark of several species of trees in the genus Styrax. A few spoons of the roughly crushed powder are added to hot coal embers and they smoke as they disintegrate. The fragrance is strong and heady. The receptacles of the coals were large, shallow cups on an inverted s horizontally placed. Like other objects for upacharas, wealthy devotees with access to master craftsmen could sponsor elaborate ones that were engraved and had sheet metal inserted in the joints with engraved images of animals.
Different types of Deepam
Deepa or waving a lamp lit is an integral part of the upachara. For fire was the only means of light in the past and because of its symbolism of removing ignorance. As a consequence several types of lamps evolved – those that were stationary (a fine example from the Chola period can be seen in the Government Museum, Madras), those that were suspended from the ceiling and those that were held in the hand. Those held in the hand had the lamp in the front, the horizontal ‘s' that served as two base pedestals. The space behind the lamp and the rear base had separate icons cast and fixed. Icons included a five-headed cobra, then called the naga deepa. The cobra has been a symbol of fertility whose worship in the lesser Hindu traditions was absorbed in the Sanskrit tradition.
It could be an elephant, the gaja deepa where the elephant symbolises royalty, the horse, also a symbol of speed and velour, became the ashwa deepa. Siva temples had rishaba, Siva's mount. They also had the Purushamriga, an animal with the head of a man/sage. There is a minor reference to this ardent Siva devotee in the Mahabharata. In some temples, these icons were a similar pedestal without the lamp, in which case they were ritually shown to the deity much like a King would inspect his army and check if they were all in the best of condition.
Vishnu temples had a unique Kurma deepa, where the tortoise had in its rear a handle. The carapace of the tortoise had five small holes through which the wick was inserted. Falsely considered an ill omen, the tortoise is considered a symbol of stability and even today in Kerala, wooden seats are made in the same shape for use in Vedic rituals. Such rare lamps may have also been much more of the whim of an aesthetic devotee and a master craftsman than a specific textual reference that insists a temple having this lamp.
Most of these lamps have gone – auctioned off by temples or removed by unscrupulous collectors. What remains are the adukkudeepa, where each platter has several wicks in a circle and then there are smaller levels of platters, always of an odd number. The other lamp used in the end is the Kumbha arathi, this is waved in front by the priest today but was once reserved for the devadasi of the temple who would sing special songs as she did it and finally place the deepa near Bali peeta. This ensured that the ‘evil eye' cast on the deity was removed in this process. The Kumbha arathi is a pot with one upright wick at the top.
Poorna kumbha is a metal pot with sacred water that has in its mouth a cluster of mango leaves. This is carried by the host in both hands and shown in front of the visiting dignitary. Agamas don't seem to mention this as an upachara for the god and this is more for honoured guests – royalty or ascetics.
Pancha thattu – These are found in Siva temples and used particularly in the evening ritual. They are placed and then shown in front of the deity. Each of them is a metal plate with a wick - Ishanam (North East/ upwards), Thathpurusham (East), Agoram (south), Vamadevam (North), Sathyojathi (west). At the centre is one for Sadasiva, this alone is a metal pot with a single wick in the centre. They represent the five aspects of Siva and signify his universal presence.
Kannadi – a handheld mirror. The mirror is twisted in a decorative fashion in front of the processional deity after the decoration is complete, symbolically allowing the deity to admire himself/herself and ‘check' if the decorations are in order. The traditional mirrors were polished metal discs with a slender rod for the handle. Today, modern glass mirrors are used.
Kodai (umbrella) – has long been a symbol of royalty. The winning king always cut of the umbrella of the defeated king. As an upachara, a smaller metal umbrella is shown to the deity. In procession, the sunlight or rain must never fall on the deity and therefore one or even two large umbrellas with flat tops are used. Even in the case of Vishnu when riding a horse vahanam at breakneck speed, a golden umbrella is carried with the vahanam and the deity in temples such as Srirangam during the vedupari festival.
Chamaram – flywhisks come from the manes of horses and a pair is waved on either side during processions. Many of these were in Chola times made with handles of gold.
Visiri – a fan, either a real one of cloth or a ritual one of metal are waved for the deity. In the Nanguneri temple, the fan is a large one made of a palm frond (thala brundham).
Surutti– or Vyajanam is a teardrop shaped metal or cloth borne on a long rod. The face has the symbol of the deity and a pair is carried on either side of the procession to show the royal status of the deity. Those who bear it are called edupadi.
Veda parayanam – Recitation of the Vedas a key upachara. They are the most sacred texts for the religion. Also in this list is the recitation of the ‘Dravida Veda,' the 4000 divyaprabhandam and the thevaram for Siva temples. In some temples, there is an interesting order. The Tamil saints sing of seeing God, whereas in Vedic hymns, the presence of god is inferred. Therefore in procession Tamil recitations take precedence in some temples!
Naadham–music. Deserving greater focus, many instruments exclusively for temple use are largely forgotten today. The Tiruvarur temple is probably the one with the most complex and comprehensive music traditions – different ragas for different days, and points when the deity is in procession and for the various rituals.
Natyam – Dance was once one of the most important offerings with the devadasi community but today is largely absent. Several dance dramas were written for staging in temples and all of these are lost today, the enactment of the Kaisiki Puranam in Tirukurungudi is an exception though, since it is a dance drama. Several medieval dance and drama texts by kings such as Shahaji and Amarasimha languish in libraries for want of revival.
Today, with most temples having a smaller number of devotees or having devotees not always familiar with the Sanskrit languages, many of the hymns that need to be said when the upachara is performed have been lost. The God-Ruler connection continues but in a democracy, it is confined to political posters! The only purpose for these upacharas therefore seem to be to teach us to enjoy a feast for the senses and use that elevated level of consciousness to propel us to be better human beings
Source Today's HINDU news paper.
Perhaps this article may be of interest to some who are performing pujas
