Appendix Four
Types of Worship and Materials Used in Worship

We have said something of the worship of the dangerous deities in chapter 9 but have not discussed personal and household acts of worship directed to benign deities.

"Worship" in its most general sense is often phrased as sewa yagu , "to serve," a term used to designate service to a superior, an employer, or a king as well as a deity. Specific, relatively formal, and circumscribed acts of worship are called, as generally m Hinduism, pujas . In formal pujas and in most of the more informal gestures of worship, the worshiper acts out respect, subordination, hospitality, and honor to the deity—implicitly giving the deity, in turn, responsibilities to the worshiper. Various kinds of daily worship are considered to be a duty, part of following the dharma , a way of maintaining relations with the deities. Many special acts of worship and special kinds of pujas are required or advisable or available options in various circumstances.

In addition to the daily pujas performed in households without the aid of Brahman purohitas (family priests), and the minor optional household and personal pujas that are also done without the assistance of Brahmans, Rajopadhyaya Brahman purohitas are able to list more than seventy specifically named pujas that they perform for their middle- and upper-status employers under various circumstances.

The offering of pure and unbroken husked rice, kiga :, is considered an elementary puja . People knowing that they will pass some favorite temple or shrine may carry some kiga : with them to offer to the deity. Other pujas add to and elaborate on this offering. Within more complex pujas there is often a climactic offering of kiga : in a component act that is specifically called (as is the larger sequence of which it is a part) puja yagu , "doing a puja ."

We will sketch some different pujas in a summary and incomplete way, using local terms for some materials and implements that will be defined and described in later sections of this appendix.

Pujas Not Conducted By A Brahman Purohita

Temple Visits

We have remarked the minimal puja act, the offering of kiga :, which may be added to respect gestures and circumambulation when passing temples and shrines. Purposeful visits to temples and shrines for worship, most commonly visits to the local Ganesa^[*] shrine necessary before most other family worship, entail a more elaborate procedure that is essentially the same as the basic daily household puja . Women bring the necessary materials (kiga :, flowers, incense, a wick, which has been soaked m oil or purified butter, and other optional offerings) on a shallow metal dish, a puja bha :, or in a shallow bamboo container, a swalyaca , a grain winnowing basket. Men bring the supplies in a small box, a kiga: batta , a "kiga : box." The worshiper first washes himself or herself—ideally at the river—and then proceeds to the temple (or temples). First he^[1] presents kiga : and, usually, flowers, ideally visualizing the deity as seated or standing in his chest. Then he may offer other offerings—burning incense, a burning wick, and so on. Then, if it is spatially possible, the worshiper circumambulates the temple or shrine.

Home Pujas

Daily Worship. Nitya Puja The household deities who are the focus of daily worship have been listed in chapter 8 and the location of the worship area in houses noted in chapter 7. The worship area is purified each morning. Household members (including girls after their mock-marriage ceremony, and boys after their Kaeta Puja ceremony) come to worship at the household shrine before they have taken any food. They come in no particular order, depending on their daily schedules. Worship is usually done rapidly, and takes only several minutes. In contrast to other kinds of household pujas where there is usually one deity who is the central focus of worship, this puja is directed to all the household gods. The necessary equipment and supplies are arranged near the worshiper and in front of the god images. In a typical sequence the worshiper pours one kind of pure water, nina :, on his right hand, and using the dampened fingers of his right hand, washes the images' faces. He then applies either a white or yellow sinha(n ) pigment to the forehead of each image, using the ring finger or little finger of the right hand and then, using the same finger, applies a red pigment. Then he places some grains of kiga : on the sinha(n) spot. Next flowers or flower petals are placed on the images' heads, or a sprig of flowers long enough when placed on the ground to touch a deity's head may be leaned against the statue. Next burning incense is offered. The incense is constructed of fragrant materials twisted into a cord. The cord is folded in the middle and twisted again, so that one end is now constituted by the fold and the other by the two cut open ends. Newars, at least those with Brahman family purohitas , burn the rounded end, which quickly splits and separates

to produce two flames, representing Siva and Sakti. This is thought to be a specifically Newar (i.e., non-Indo-Nepalese) custom. When the incense is lit a bell is rung, and the incense is held m turn toward each god as an offering of a pleasant smell. The bell, an offering of music, also captures the attention of the god who is meditating or whose attention is elsewhere. Next the wick is lit, the bell is rung again, and the lit wick, as an offering of light, is held in turn toward each god. The incense and the wick are then placed on a mound of kiga : in front of any of the god images. A small bowl containing baji and sweetcakes is taken and, held in joined hands, presented to each deity m turn. This represents a feeding of the deifies, who are said to be hungry in the morning. The bowl is then placed somewhere in front of the images.

The next step is the climax of the puja . The bell (or sometimes a small drum, or a conch trumpet, instruments more usually used m Brahman-assisted pujas ) is sounded, then a respect gesture is made with joined palms, some grains of kiga : being held between the palms. If the worshiper knows an appropriate Sanskrit phrase or verse he will say it, otherwise he will say the god's name, trying to visualize the deity as present in his chest. The worshiper may call all the gods' names, he may just say bhagavan , "god," or may just name Visnu^[*] or Siva as representing all the deities. He may add, "be happy," or "protect us," or mention some personal concern. He will then do the elemental puja yagu act, flicking some kiga : at the deity.^[2]

Now the worshiper takes some of the water that had been offered to the deities and sprinkles it on his own head. He takes some of the pigments on the tray—which had been touched by his finger as he decorated each deity in turn, and puts it on his own forehead. He takes some of the flowers that have fallen to the feet of the gods and places them on his own head. If there had been a food offering he would also take a bit of the food and eat it. This taking of "prasada "^[3] concludes the puja .

Optional Household Worship When a household or one of its members feels that they should do some special worship beyond temple visits or daily pujas , but one that will not require a Brahman's participation, the puja variously named apasa(n) cwanegu, brata cwanegu , or, simply, dya puja , "god puja ," is done. The first two terms (the first term, derived apparently from the Sanskrit upavasa , "fasting," and the second from vrata , "austerity") mean to undergo a fast or an "austerity" of some kind. Typical motivations for such pujas might be to overcome an illness, to seek an improvement in farming or business affairs, for success in an upcoming school examination, so that a household girl will find a good husband, and so forth. These are usually done by the person concerned or by a household woman for the household. Often the supplicant vows to do a regular series of such pujas , once a week, twice a month, and so on, during a given period. Occasionally the family purohita may assist in the puja , but this is optional and does not make it equivalent to the more elaborate and costly pujas , which require a Brahman's participation. In contrast to the daily morning pujas , these pujas are principally addressed to a particular deity, usually Visnu/Narayana^[*] or, sometimes, Ganesa^[*] .

The puja is usually held in the late afternoon, and participants cannot eat or

drink before the puja ; hence the nominal fast or austerity suggested by the name. After the puja is completed the participants eat a meal usually constituted of rich, sweet foods, such as milk, curds, sugar, and sweetcakes. For this kind of worship additional steps or elements are added to the sequence of the basic daily household puja , essentially by adding more elegant offerings. These vary somewhat, but typically include the following. The gods' faces are washed in addition to the usual nina : with "five nectars" (milk, clarified butter, honey, curds and sugar), then with milk, then again with nina :, and finally with Ga(n)ga^[*] jal . Instead of simple kiga :, a mixture of akye , barley, and sesame seeds, is added to the sinha(n) spot on the deities' foreheads. Before flowers are presented to the deities, white threads representing sacred threads are put over the shoulders of the images, and after the flower presentation flower garlands may be placed around their necks. If men are doing the puja , they are more likely to blow a conch shell or rattle a drum than they would be in a simple household puja . Fruit is always added to the food offerings. The light offering now will be not just wicks, but oil lamps and burning sticks of camphor, and an offering of small coins is added to other offerings. At the end of the puja , just before taking prasada , the worshiper will rise and circumambulate the puja area, or if the spatial arrangements make this impossible, he visualizes the act, or stands and rotates his body in the auspicious direction.

Pujas Conducted By A Brahman Purohita

The basic and most common Brahman-assisted household puja is usually called a dhala(n) danegu , or sometimes an "important" or "great" (tarha[n]gu ) apasa(n) cwanegu or brata cwanegu , to distinguish it from the non-Brahman-assisted special household pujas . The etymology of the term dhala(n) danegu is variously explained. In what may be folk etymology it is locally related to the term dhala :, a list or inventory, and said to mean to perform rigorously by following a list of procedures.^[4]

These are the most elaborate pujas that a household without Tantric initiation (and thus all households at the Jyapu or lower levels) will usually do. Households in those upper-level thars who can do Tantric pujas often do dhala(n) danegu pujas rather than Tantric pujas for many purposes, because such pujas are easier to arrange and people within the family without Tantric initiation can participate. In contrast to simple household pujas , in dhala(n) danegu and other Brahman-assisted pujas groups of people, household members, relatives coming from outside of the household and, sometimes, friends often participate.

There are certain days in the annual calendar in which a dhala(n) danegu may traditionally be offered to one or another of the focal deities of the day (chaps. 13 to 15). The noncalendrical dhala(n) danegu pujas are generally directed to Visnu/Narayana^[*] . The expressed motives for such pujas are various. They may be in fulfillment of a pledge, or more vaguely as an expression of thankfulness because the family's life has been going well, or to "support the dharma, " or for a good next life for the participants, and so on.

The Brahman's paddhatis , written guides for the performance of various kinds of pujas , give sixty stages in the sequence of dhala(n) danegu pujas . The first seventeen are the preliminary work to be done by the Brahman purohita , the remainder are for the client, the jajman , as instructed and sometimes aided by the purohita . The puja takes place in the late afternoon or evening. The participants must fast from the morning, and must have a bya(n)kegu purification (chap. 11). This was formerly a major purification, but in recent years it is often a minor one. The clothes worn by participants must all have been washed since their last use. As many people may attend, the puja will be held in an open area, not the crowded and restricted area of the household shrine. It may be given in the open area of the cwata floor or, sometimes, in a courtyard outside of the house. Depending on the number of people who participate and its optional elaborations, the puja may take from roughly two-and-one-half to five hours to complete.

Materials and Equipment

The equipment and supplies used in pujas in Bhaktapur are collectively called puja jola(n) . There are some thirty items of equipment used in addition to the murtis or god images. With the exception of two conch shells (one used as a container for water, the other as a trumpet) the other items are made of metal—of copper, iron, brass, "bell metal" or kae(n) , and other alloys.^[5] Most items must be made from the proper specific type (or a selection among limited specific types) of metal. Most of the thirty items come from the standard Hindu inventory of ritual equipment, but some of them are locally considered specifically Newar, which is to say that they are not used by the Indo-Nepalese Hindus. The equipment includes bowls and dishes of various sizes and shapes, spoons, containers for water or other fluids (some with spouts for pouring, some without), a funnel, tripods, oil lamps, containers for colored pigments, bells, a mirror, a conch shell container, and a conch shell trumpet. About half these items are used in ordinary pujas , the remainder in various types of specialized pujas . Ordinary Brahman-assisted household pujas use about ten items; ordinary Tantric pujas use some sixteen pieces of equipment.

Nine items are locally considered to be specifically Newar. The most prominent of these is an oil lamp, sukunda (a variant shape with the same usage is called mukunda ). This is an elaborate lamp of complex symbolism, much of it representing the various relations of Siva and Sakti. We have discussed it in chapter 9. The other special Newar items are the salai , a metal dish; the nya(n)thala , and the thapi(n)ca , flasks; the dhaupatu , a cup; the sinhamu, a container with a removable top used to hold one kind of pigment (bhus sin-ha[n] ); and the arghapatra , a container in the shape of a human skullcap.

Rajopadhyaya Brahmans list more than 200 materials that are necessary for various pujas . These include cleaning materials, leaves and grasses, pigments for decorating the deities and the puja equipment and other pigments for marking out the worship area with elaborate diagrams, flowers, various forms of rice, foodstuffs of many kinds (including sweetcakes of various shapes and ingre-

dients), alcoholic spirits and sacrificial animals (for Tantric puja s), products of the cow, threads of various sorts, oil-lamp wicks, cosmetic kits as gifts to the goddesses, small unglazed clay dishes, and other disposable pieces of equipment. Such materials are used in the preparation of the puja and in its course as offerings to various deities and to the officiating priests.

Some of the materials that are referred to in this volume warrant some special comment.

Pure Water

There are three kinds of progressively purer water.

1. Na:na is used (along with red clay and cow dung) for preparing the puja area for ordinary, non-Brahman-assisted puja s. It is used for washing the face and hands and rinsing the mouth in the morning, after excretion and before meals, and before puja s. It is used for a first rinsing of puja equipment, which is then washed with water of a higher degree of purity. It is the proper water for boiling rice. Na:na must be drawn on the same day it is used from the river, a well, or a tap, and it must not be touched by a menstruating woman, polluting animal, or member of the lowest-status thar s. Household women collect it in the early morning after they have swept the houses. When she returns home a woman will call out a warning to make sure that no one is above her on the stairway (which would pollute the na:na ) as she brings the water up to the floor of the house on which the puja is to take place or the cooking is to be done.

2. Nina is used for preparing puja areas for Brahman-assisted puja s. It is used for washing the images of deities, for mixing with pigments to be presented to deities, for cooking sweetcakes presented to the deities, as the water offering presented to deities for "drinking," and for rinsing puja equipment after it has been first washed with na:na . On the day that nina is to be collected, the women first clean the house and then purify the area in front of the front door with na:na , cow dung, and red clay. When the woman who is to carry the water reaches the source, she cleans her feet, legs, and hands and then washes her mouth and face. She scours the vessel that is to carry the water and then cleans the tap, edge of the well, or stone at the edge of the river with ashes or the proper kind of soil. She then once again cleans herself as she had before and draws the water, which is now considered nina . She returns home being careful that no one else touch the container or the water unless they are similarly purified. At home she calls out a warning, as she had done with the na:na , and for the same reason. Before placing the water container on the ground near the puja area she will pour out some of the water, and place the container on the wet area to prevent contamination.

3. There is water of still higher purity called "Ganges water" or Ga(n)ga jal . This is mixed with nina in the more elaborate pujas for washing the gods and giving them water offerings, and is used in death ceremonies. It is drawn with

the same precautions used for gathering nina from areas in the river that are considered to be tirtha s, where the water is considered to be of special purity and potency.

Pigments

Various pigments and fragrant woods are used in marking deities and individuals in the course of puja s. The marks made (and by extension the materials so used) are called sinha(n) (sinha: in Kathmandu Newari). Traditionally white and red pigments derived from fragrant white and red varieties of sandalwood were used, but now cheaper substitute pigments are often used. These are a saffron yellow pigment, mhasusinha(n) , and an orange pigment, bhuisinha(n) , used respectively as replacements for the white and red sandalwood pigments. A red powder derived from red sandalwood, called either Hyausinha(n) or Hikusinha(n) , is used as a cosmetic to be presented in a small box—along with such items as a comb, bracelet, a necklace, and mirror—to goddesses in certain puja s. The same red pigment was traditionally used as sinha (n) where bhuisinha(n) is now used. For Tantric puja s, monhi , a black pigment derived from lamp black, is also used.

Not only god images but also ten other pieces of equipment used in one or another puja are given sinha(n) markings. All objects so marked are considered as deities. Some of the pigment is taken back from the deities and placed on the heads of the officiants and worshipers as prasada . The white or yellow pigment is applied first, followed by orange or red pigment. Then three kernels of husked rice (jaki ) are placed on the worshiper's sinha(n) mark. The pigments and rice are given various exoteric and esoteric interpretations.

A vermilion pigment, abhir , is the pigment thrown during Holi festival in India, and in recent years on that occasion in Bhaktapur. Mixed with "popped" rice, tae(n) , it is given as an offering during joyful rites of passage, and is sprinkled on the heads and shoulders of the central participants in some processions and ceremonies.

Rice

Various forms and mixtures of rice are used in puja s. These are wa, uncooked, unhusked rice;^[6]jaki , uncooked husked rice; and akhye , husked rice selected so that it includes no broken grains. Akhye purified by prewashing in nina : and presented as an offering to deities is called kiga :.^[7]Mataki is a mixture of husked and unhusked rice (also called in nonreligious terminology wakijaki , "wa and jaki "). Other forms of rice are of secondary importance. Baji , rice that is cooked in oil and then flattened by beating, is, in contrast to rice boiled in water, acceptable by a superior if cooked or touched by a clean inferior. It is offered as a food offering to deities. Ja , boiled rice, is offered to deities in household puja s once a year, when it is acceptable because it has been cooked, on that occasion, in milk.

Tae(n) is "popped" rice, which is mixed with the red pigment abhir , and given as an offering in joyful rites of passage and some major puja s.

Mataki is used for the base on which two items of equipment—the Sukunda and the Kales (or Kalas)—are placed. Both these items represent Siva and Sakti (chap. 9). The husked rice in the mataki mixture represents Sakti (the potential force in the rice grain), and the unhusked rice, the combination of covering and kernel, represents Siva as the integration of form and energy. This use of mataki is considered specifically Newar, in contrast to Indo-Nepalese practice. Some other items of equipment, such as the main god image in non-Tantric puja , are placed on a base of unhusked rice.

Samhae

Samhae (in Kathmandu Newari, sometimes, samae ) is a "mixture of beaten rice [baji ], popped rice [tae(n) ], dried fish, roasted [water buffalo] meat, eggs, soy-beans and raw ginger pieces" (Manandhar 1976, 566), or some modification of such a mixture. It is presented to the meat eating dangerous deities, but is not equivalent to an animal sacrifice to such deities.

Swaga(n)

This is a mixture of kiga:, tae(n) , curds, and abhir , which is placed as a mark on a deity's forehead, and then taken back as prasada , and placed on the worshiper's forehead. The mixture is also presented to individuals who are the main subjects of auspicious rites of passage, and of some other household ceremonies. It is said to confer good luck, and protect against evil. In some interpretations the swaga(n) mark represents the moon, which should be in front of a person as an auspicious sign for a journey.