1. We use the theatrical term "troupe" to refer to the group of men who traditionally embody and act the Nine Durgas as well as the group (or troop) of divinities who become embodied. [BACK]

2. This probably refers to one of two kings called elsewhere Gunakamadeva^{[ *]} , who reigned in the tenth and twelfth centuries (Slusser 1982, vol. 1, p. 45). The "Wright chronicle" puts the events of the legend in the realm of one "Suvarna Malla" (placed in that chronicle in the early sixteenth century), who "introduced the dance of the Nava Durga, having heard that they had been seen dancing at night" ([1877] 1972, p. 189). [BACK]

3. In some version they just happen to be there; in others they were forced to stay m the forest through the power of still another Tantric expert. [BACK]

4. We have seen variations on this theme in the legend of Sesar^{[ *]} Acaju's wife in Biska:, whose meddling led, according to one of its legends, to Biska: as a civic festival (chap. 14). The function of the Brahman's wife in the Nine Durgas legends has interesting psychological and mythic resonances elsewhere. Like Eve and Bluebeard's wife she destroys the paradise of man's childlike, self-absorbed, and selfish pleasures, but m so doing reroutes forces to the service of civilization. In the Yasi(n) God legend of the princess inhabited by snakes and in Puranic^{[ *]} stories of a benign Parvati inhabited by the Dangerous Goddess, we are reminded that the woman not only domesticates but also can represent the very dangers against which domestication protects. Bhaktapur tries, not always successfully, to isolate and separate these meanings. [BACK]

5. This Bhairavi is thought by some religious experts to be associated with an esoteric goddess represented in the Gana^{[ *]} Kumari, in the Hipha: gods of Mohani, and in the Taleju temple (see text below). [BACK]

6. The numbers m brackets refer to the sequence of calendrical events of the lunar year as presented in chapter 13. [BACK]

7. This last dance-drama or pyakha(n) is of the kind called na^{[ *]} lakegu , or "fishing" pyakha(n) . It takes place in the Rajopadhyaya Brahman's neighborhood where they had danced before beginning their circuit of the city and its environing communities some nine months before and closes the spatial circle of the na^{[ *]} lakegu performances by bringing them back. [BACK]

8. Of course, the relation of these ritual markers of the agriculture and weather cycle to the actual events of that cycle is variable. In the case of Sithi Nakha, the day occurs early enough in the year to probably well precede the rains. Such markers have to be placed so that they are safely prior to the changes they anticipate and prepare for. [BACK]

9. For references to Kumara on this day and at other times during the year elsewhere in Nepal, see Anderson (1971, chap. 5). [BACK]

10. During the Prthivi^{[ *]} puja six sweetcakes are offered to the Goddess in the mandala^{[ *]} , and six different kinds of pulses are also offered. The name of Kumara is recited during the puja , but this is locally thought of as a secondary reference. [BACK]

11. The rice is prepared at the Taleju temple by members of the high Jyapu thar , the Suwal. This is one of the many special duties at the Taleju temple assigned to specific thar s, which are often residues of ancient thar functions during the Malla period. [BACK]

12. According to Niels Gutschow (personal communication), one of his associates reported seeing the Nine Durgas when they reached their god-house on this day first banging against its closed door, and then falling to the ground and lying there as if dead. [BACK]

13. Teilhet's paper has important details on the making of the masks, their iconography, on other aspects of the Gatha's costumes, and on the Gatha performers themselves. It reflects, however, the limited perspective of Teilhet's informants m their speculations on other aspects of the Nine Durgas' activities other than the ones with which they were most closely concerned. [BACK]

14. The practice of putting cremation remains "in a small earthen pot and throw[ing] them into the water" in Puranic^{[ *]} times is noted in Pandey (1969, 261). Following cremations in Bhaktapur now, some of the ashes and bone fragments from the head of the cremated corpse are placed m the soil of the river bed just after the cremation (app. 6). [BACK]

15. The Nine Durgas may be thought to increase not only the amount of water but also its fertile potency. Niels Gutschow remarks that Bhaktapur's farmers have a strong belief that the Nine Durgas are present in the water in the rice fields during the summer. They say that they should not urinate in the flooded fields in order not to offend or hurt those deities (personal communication). [BACK]

16. It is important to note for the distinction between the Nine Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses and the Nine Durgas (chap. 8) that the Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses remain actively m their fixed locations throughout the entire year. However, neither they nor the ordinary moral gods of the city are fully sufficient to protect the city when the Nine Durgas are dormant. [BACK]

17. Hamilton writes that the sacrifice was supposed to have taken place on the eighth day of Asvina, which would have been during the Mohani sequence. It is Bhairava not Bhairavi who now performs animal sacrifices—with the exception of the killing of a cock during the Pyakha(n) (see text below). In Hamilton's list of the Nine Durgas ([1819] 1971, 35) Bhairavi seems to represent the Mahakali of the present troupe, and Mahakala seems to represent the present Bhairava. If it were Bhairavi who did, m fact, perform the human sacrifices, this would be congruent with her later meanings in the Nine Durgas dance-dramas. [BACK]

18. When farmers have finished the transplanting they have a purification ceremony on this day called syina jya byenkegu , with feasts later in the day. If the transplanting cannot be completed until after Gatha Muga: Ca:re, the ceremony will be held when the actual transplanting is completed. [BACK]

19. It is also said that on this day the Nine Durgas' Ganesa^{[ *]} appears and will give the Gathas ritual effectiveness, siddhi , in their preparation for the new cycle. [BACK]

20. Iron is widely believed to have the power to repel spirits, and is used for this purpose in certain household rituals. [BACK]

21. His name has no apparent connection with the Gatha thar name. [BACK]

22. The versions of the legend given by Anderson (1971, 73) and D. R. Regmi (1965-1966, part II, p. 661) tell of an heroic frog who alerted the valley people to an attack of the demon and helped trap and thus destroy him. This part of the legend seems not to be salient in Bhaktapur. [BACK]

23. That is to say, a consistent and profound belief in karma , the automatic and certain rewards and punishmens for moral activities, can produce contradictions with other belief systems, such as the power of devotion or of ritual practices directed to the gods to alter one's fate. This sort of belief in karma would be subversive of the priest-mediated ritual order of traditional Newar cities. [BACK]

24. This detail is related to one of the customs of the day, as we will see below. [BACK]

25. This is a transformation of the Ghantakarna legend. That name means "bells [at the] ears," and in a Puranic^{[ *]} legend refers to an Asura who being an enemy of Visnu^{[ *]} wore bells at his ears so as not to hear the mention of his name (Mani, 1975, 289). This creature later became a devotee of Visnu^{[ *]} and an ally of the Gods. [BACK]

26. One striking difference from some of the descriptions of events in other Newar communities is that Po(n) untouchables are said elsewhere to play important roles m representing Gatha Muga:. "The main character in the festival is a Newar man of the untouchable Pode [Po(n)] caste who has the dubious honor of impersonating Ghana Karna, his near-naked body painted with lewd symbols and pictures depicting all types of sexual depravity (Anderson 1971, 74; see also D. R. Regmi 1965-1966, part II, p. 661; G. S. Nepali 1965, 378). This use of a Pore or Po(n) is not made now in Bhaktapur, and we have no information on it having been made there m the past. [BACK]

27. This reflects a similar practice described in at least one Puranic^{[ *]} text for the final day of Dasai(n) (Mohani). "The sending away of Devi should be made . . . by throwing dust and mud, . . . with indulgence in words and songs referring to male and female organs and with words expressive of the sexual act. The Devi becomes angry with him who does not abuse another and whom others do not abuse and pronounces on him a terrible curse" (the Kalikapurana^{[ *]} , quoted in Kane [1968-1977, vol. V, p. 177]). Kane goes on to comment that the purpose of this was to emphasize that "before Devi the highest and the lowest were of equal status . . . [and] to show that all men were equal at least one day in the year." [BACK]

28. In traditional Newar houses the carved wooden open worked windows are so constructed that it is possible to look out without being visible from the outside. [BACK]

29. Although there would seem to be a strong metaphorical connection of Gatha Muga: and fertility, there is no local doctrine about this nor of any relation to the Nine Durgas or Devi who are related to fertility in the Devi cycle. Devi is, in doctrine, fully and self-sufficiently generative in herself. [BACK]

30. The Newars of Bhaktapur, as Nepalis do m general, fly kites at this time. These are usually flown from the ka:si s the open porches of the upper stories of houses. One of the several accounts given of this practice is that it sends messages to the gods to remind them not to send any more rain. [BACK]

31. Mohani (in Kathmandu Newari, also Moni or Monhi), according to Gautam Vajracharya (personal communication), is derived from the Sanskrit, mahanavami , the "ninth great day." The ninth day is one of the climactic days of the cycle. There are similar words that have close thematic relations to the term. Monhi ( moni in Kathmandu dialect) is a mark made using the soot from a special oil lamp that allows for possession by a deity and which is an important part of the worship of the Mohani period for all worshipers. Mohani (Sanskrit, mohini ), meaning "enchantment," is an important theme and term in the scriptural account, the Devi Mahatmya , which is a major source for the imagery of the period. The two latter words are probably connected, the Monhi mark inducing Mohani or the state of being "enchanted." [BACK]

32. Our discussion of Mohani refers throughout to aspects and interpretations of Devi and the dangerous goddesses that are treated at length in chapter 8. [BACK]

33. As we have noted in chapter 8, the position of the goddesses around Bhaktapur and the sequence of their special days during Mohani corresponds closely to the sequence in which they are introduced in the Devi Mahatmya , the Puranic^{[ *]} text that contains much of the mythological account on which Mohani is based. The pitha s are visited during Mohani on each successive day in their exact circumferential sequence around the periphery of Bhaktapur. Starting with (1) Brahmani to the east on the first day, the successive days' focal pitha s are (2) Mahesvari to the southeast, (3) Kumari to the south, (4) Vaisnavi^{[ *]} to the southwest, (5) Varahi to the west, (6) Indrani^{[ *]} to the northwest, (7) Mahakali to the north, and (8) Mahalaksmi^{[ *]} to the northeast. On the climactic ninth day the focal pitha is Tripurasundari at the mandalic^{[ *]} center. On the tenth day the focus is once again on the beginning position, Brahmani. [BACK]

34. Manandhar proposes that " Na:la " is derived from the Sanskrit Nava Ratra , the "nine nights," the first nine nights of Dasai(n) (1976, 242). Others think that it has the meaning of "new and delicate." "Swa(n)'' means flower. The Na:la swa(n) is the name given in this context to the barley plant that is grown in soil placed in the room. This room is also sometimes called the " Kha(n) '' or "sword" room. Swords will be an important symbolic element in the room later in the sequence. [BACK]

35. G. S. Nepali (1965, 405 ff.) gives details on this and other Mohani procedures, many of which differ sharply from the common Bhaktapur ones. [BACK]

36. Girls born into the family take part, as do wives married into it after their introductory initiation into the household rituals and deities. In those upper-status houses with Tantric practices some portions of the Na:la swa(n) ceremonies on the eighth, ninth, and tenth days of Mohani require initiation, and only those women with special Tantric "half-initiation" take part. Nepali says (1965, 409) that married-out women can no longer enter the Na:la swa(n) rooms of their parental homes. Although this may be true for some thar s in Bhaktapur, it is not, reportedly, generally true for most of them. [BACK]

37. The lamps are placed on his head, his right and left shoulders, his right and left knees, and the palms of his hands, which are held in a supine position. [BACK]

38. The lamps may be filled with the particularly expensive fuel, clarified butter, but even the more ordinary mustard or sesame oils are expensive for families in these quantities. [BACK]

39. In the past there was a more dramatic version of these procedures during the first nine days. The devotee would wrap cloths around each of his fingers and, dipping the cloths in oil, set them afire. This practice has disappeared in recent years. The motives given in explanation of all these vrata s are various, but they typically represent gratitude for help in overcoming some difficulty, or in hopes that it will be overcome in the future. In certain extended families the vrata had been pledged at some time in the (sometimes distant) past, and various families within the phuki take turns m designating one of their members to perform it. These hereditary vrata s are sometimes conceived as protection against the flooding of the phuki's fields, or against illness in the family. It is mostly members of the farming thar s who perform these vrata s. This reflects, perhaps, the agricultural emphasis of the Mohani and the dangers of improper agricultural conditions as well as the special economic vulnerability of the farming thar s in Bhaktapur's traditional economy. [BACK]

40. The major Taleju activities of Mohani are the daily Na:la swa(n) worship; various activities concerning the "living goddess" Kumari; the special activities of the ninth night, the Kalaratri; the moving ("taking up" and "taking down'') of the goddess Taleju within the temple; and, on the final day, the procession of the goddess Taleju. [BACK]

41. The lower thars (such as the butchers, Jugis, and Po[n]s) still associated with Taleju have kept their traditional functions there, as they have in the wider city society, as have the priestly thar s. Shifts since Malla times away from their traditional functions are for the most part among the Pa(n)cthariya and Chathariya (whose thar names usually signify their traditional functions in the aristocratic court-centered segment of Malla society) as well as among a few of the Jyapu thars who previously had some specialized servant or military function (e.g., guards, charioteers, cooks) for the court. The particular thar s who had traditional Taleju Malla court functions are listed m chapter 5. [BACK]

42. This is in contrast to Biska:, where the king and the Guru-Purohit are represented by two different Brahmans. [BACK]

43. The true Taleju image may be moved within the temple, but cannot be taken out of it. The jatra image, like all such images, is specially designated for processions outside of the temple. These two images are the only images of Taleju in the Taleju temple. [BACK]

44. Taleju temple also has an elaborate external Golden Gate facing on the Laeku or "Durbar" Square. Access to Taleju's inner courtyard is forbidden to non-Hindus. The inner Golden Gate and the adjoining areas in the Mucuka are shown in a color photograph in M. Singh (1968, 192-193). This photograph is of particular importance in that photographing of the interior areas of the Taleju temple is, in principle, forbidden. [BACK]

45. This conjunction of two forms of the Goddess is reflected on the following day, the eighth day, in the other Na:la swa(n) rooms throughout the city, where an additional image of Bhagavati—in those cases an anthropomorphic one—is brought into the Na:la swa(n) rooms and placed in conjunction with the kalasa . [BACK]

46. As G. S. Nepali dryly remarks, "This is a state event and all Government officials, even if they are Newars, have to be present m the procession" (1965, 407). [BACK]

47. Nepali erroneously places these events on the eighth day of Mohani. [BACK]

48. There are some references m the literature to Mohani's connections (particularly the victory celebration of the tenth day) with the Ramayana's^{[ *]} account of Rama's victory over the demon king Ravana^{[ *]} (e.g., D. R. Regmi, 1965-1966, part II, p. 673; Anderson 1971, p. 152). That story is still told m Bhaktapur, and sometimes informally associated with Mohani, but is more closely associated in Bhaktapur with the minor spring festival, Cait dasai(n) [31]. None of the mass of symbolic events of Bhaktapur's Mohani period seem to refer to the Rama story. [BACK]

49. Like many calendrically connected feasts, this one has a humorous name. It is called the "Ku chi," the "one- ku " feast. A ku is a measure equivalent to about a quart, and the name indicates that people will eat at least this much beaten rice, along with all the other foods they will eat at the feast, and that, thus, they will consume enormous quantities of food. [BACK]

50. The exact number does not seem to have any traditional significance, in contrast with the number of sacrificial water buffaloes. [BACK]

51. " Dugu " means goat. " Nikhu " is said to mean solidly colored in the sense of an unspotted or unblemished color. The morpheme ni in other compound words has the sense of "uncontaminated," which is part of the sense of nikhu here. [BACK]

52. " Thu " comes from " thume ," male water buffalo. [BACK]

53. This is done by a member of one of the farming thars , who lives in the house where the buffalo has been kept, and whose family has this traditional responsibility. [BACK]

54. The king, seated, asks, "What is this buffalo's name?" The Nae answers, "Nikhuthu." King: "Is this Nikhuthu proper (i.e., does it have the required characteristics as a sacrificial offering)?" Nae: "Yes.'' King: ''Do you swear to it?" Nae: "Let there be victory to the king and to Taleju and destruction to myself (if I am not telling the truth)." [He repeats this oath three times.] King: [Again.] "Do you swear to it?" Nae: "Let there be victory to the king and to Taleju and destruction to myself." [He again repeats this oath three times.] [BACK]

55. It is said that in the past each twa : paid for the buffalo that represented it. Now they are paid for by the central government's, Guthi Samsthan. [BACK]

56. Animal sacrifice during Mohani is done in the same way as it is at other times during the year (see chap. 9). [BACK]

57. Hi means blood; pha comes from phayegu , meaning to receive in outtretched supine hands held joined together as a cup, or in a container so held in the hands. [BACK]

58. Buffaloes, in general, are killed only by Nae butchers in Bhaktapur, and are not used for ordinary householders' sacrifices. The exception is the killing of buffaloes by the Nine Durgas during Mohani and later in their cycle. [BACK]

59. At this point the buffaloes, like the goats, are soul-bearing creatures, who are being offered salvation through sacrifice to the Goddess. Their subsequent meaning as Asuras does not affect this interpretation. [BACK]

60. It does not make any difference whether this sacrificial blood is offered first to the right or to the left. [BACK]

61. The meat from the bodies of the buffaloes and goats will be cut up and distributed to members of the Taleju staff and to members of the government's Guthi Samsthan. [BACK]

62. It is said that anyone who, following this bath, sees blood in the water at the ancient water fountain and bathing tank associated with Indrani^{[ *]} will die within six months. The Indrani^{[ *]} bathing tank was historically within the old court complex and drew from the same water supply as the tank where the Hipha: gods bathe, and this may, in part, account for the belief. [BACK]

63. Kumari has been seen by people in the northern part of the city throughout Mohani in a daily procession from her god-house to the nearby vihara , from which on this day she will be brought to the Taleju temple. [BACK]

64. The tirtha of Tripurasundari is the only one of the Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses' tirtha s that (necessarily, because of her central location) is not close to the corresponding pitha . [BACK]

65. The demand for sacrificial goats is so great at this period that many people who would be able to afford one are unable to procure one and must offer a lesser sacrifice. [BACK]

66. The sacrifice is done in "Nepalese" style, that is, by decapitation of the animal in one blow from the back of the animal's neck without a prior cutting of the throat. The Newar Nae does not sacrifice the buffaloes. The ceremony, furthermore, although taking place on Laeku Square, is said to have no reference or relevance to Taleju. [BACK]

67. There will be no sacrifices anywhere in Bhaktapur on the tenth day. [BACK]

68. It is said, amalgamating these tools with a characteristic of the dangerous deities, that if a sacrifice is not given them they may cause an accident, thus taking the sacrifice by themselves. [BACK]

69. The condensation is, perhaps, most evident in the "Kumari" of the Nine Durgas group. [BACK]

70. The Newari term for such a deity, is Mwamha Dya:, literally "living deity." [BACK]

71. The most extensive general survey and detailed accounts of the Newar Kumaris is Michael Allen's The Cult of Kumari (1975). See also Allen's article on virgin worship in the Kathmandu Valley (1976). [BACK]

72. Kumari in Sanskrit means simply "girl, virgin, daughter." [BACK]

73. This is a form in which Kumari the maiden and Kumari as Kaumari, the Mandalic^{[ *]} Mother Goddess, are represented together. [BACK]

74. It is important to note here that for the upper-status Hindu Newars in Bhaktapur, even the high Buddhist thar s are not water-acceptable (chap. 5). This is significant here in connection with the legend of the Ekanta Kumari (see text below) and the Tantric aspects of Kumari. [BACK]

75. He is identified by the Taleju priests as Bhairava, but the Bare themselves, it is said, think of him as Kumar. [BACK]

76. They will not participate in the later main Kumari worship in the temple. This is restricted to the "Malla king" himself, that is, the Brahman who represents him. [BACK]

77. In addition to the Gana^{[ *]} Kumari, there is still another "Ekanta Kumari," who is selected from the same Bare phuki as the main Ekanta Kumari. She is connected with a now minor temple of Taleju in the Wa(n)laeku area in the northeast of Bhaktapur near Dattatreya Square. It is thought by some that this temple may have been the royal Taleju temple at an earlier time when the royal palace may have been located in that area and that this Kumari may represent some residue of that situation. At any rate, the temple is now supervised not by a Brahman but by an Acaju, and its Ekanta Kumari is of significance only to the local neighborhood. [BACK]

78. These stories resemble those of Sesar^{[ *]} Acaju (in connection with Biska:) and Somara Rajopadhyaya (in the Nine Durgas legend), which we have discussed above—in the loss of direct contact with a deity and/or the loss of supernatural power through a minor and almost inevitable human error. In those stories the blame was put on a weak woman, as it is in the second of these stories. In the first story it is the king's own fault. The Goddess's realm, like the realm of all the dangerous deities and the realm of Tantra, is beyond the civic moral order—and curious prying into this realm, by either the king or some unauthorized woman, is a particularly dangerous violation. On the basis of accounts gathered apparently for the most part from Buddhist Bare informants, Michael Allen writes that "there is always the implication, which is sometimes made explicit, that the king developed a strong desire to sexually possess the goddess" (1976, 302). [BACK]

79. For the quite different Buddhist accounts of the origins of the practice of using a Bare girl as Kumari see Allen (1975, 1976). [BACK]

80. According to Niels Gutschow (personal communication), the present (1989) Kumari lives at her parental home. This may have been true of some previous Kumaris. [BACK]

81. Allen (1975, 63) presents a list given him by a Vajracarya informant of thirty-two ideal characteristics for a Kumari, including, for example, "blue-black eyes," "skin pores small and not too open," "hair whorls stiff, turning to the right," and ''long and well-formed toes." [BACK]

82. The water buffalo heads at this time are within the inner gate of the Taleju temple's main courtyard, along with the Taleju jatra image. [BACK]

83. It is commonly said by people in Bhaktapur and is repeated in many descriptions of the Ekanta Kumari that she is placed among the decapitated heads and left alone there to see if she is without fear as a test of her validity. For Bhaktapur, at least, this is false. [BACK]

84. Most of them will remain in Bhaktapur to watch the remainder of the day's events. [BACK]

85. These procedures stand out in Bhaktapur as uniquely extreme and "Dionysian" procedures. However, they are limited in both extent and discomfort and in the very minor bodily injuries, if any, that result, in marked contrast to the much more severe and self-injuring procedures often found in such vratas elsewhere in South Asia. [BACK]

86. The buffalo heads, which are never used as siu , are given to non-Brahman members of the staff who will use them for food in feasts. [BACK]

87. Manandhar notes of the bhuiphasi (which he gives in Kathmandu dialect as bhuyu: phasi ) that it is "a variety of pumpkin which can be offered in lieu of an animal as a sacrifice to a deity (used especially by vegetarians who do not sacrifice animals or eggs)" (1976, 407). This usage is not salient in Hindu Bhaktapur. [BACK]

88. This same deity is referred to throughout Mohani. She is included in the Gana^{[ *]} Kumari, the Hipha: gods are her manifestations, and she represents Bhagavati, here. She is sometimes taken to be the mysterious Ninth Durga, as the unrepresented Sakti of the Nine Durgas Bhairava. [BACK]

89. According to Manandhar, " paya(n) " derives from the old Newari word for sword, " pa " (1976, 295). There are descriptions of Newar "sword processions" elsewhere on this day, which differ from Bhaktapur's Taleju-centered procession (e.g., D. R. Regmi 1965-1966, part II, p. 678; G. S. Nepali 1965, p. 411; Anderson 1971, 153). [BACK]

90. In her description of the activities of this, the tenth day of the Dasai(n) harvest festival in Kathiawar^{[ *]} in Gujarat in western India during the early part of the century, Stevenson reports that toward the end of a ritual centering on the Rajput princes of Kathiawar^{[ *]} , the "chief summons four of the leading grain merchants of the State and asks them what the price of gram is likely to be during the next twelve months. They give a rough estimate, but, in order not to be held to it too closely, say: 'It is in God's hands'" (1920, p. 233). The two episodes, with their references to the price of grain, which is dependent on the extent of the harvest, must obviously have some common historical ancestor. [BACK]

91. When it goes to the lower part of the city, the procession goes in a counterclockwise loop rather than in the usual auspicious clockwise one. This is apparently determined by spatial constraints, and is the unique occasion when this occurs in a city calendrical procession. [BACK]

92. The temple has no identifying iconic features now. Niels Gutschow has been told (personal communication) that it is—or was—a temple of Jagannatha. [BACK]

93. In some popular accounts it is incorrectly said that a mantra is given in a whisper by the Taleju priest to the Durgas at this time. [BACK]

94. The fertility aspect of the warrior goddess of the Devi Mahatmya is overt in a verse where foretelling an extended period of drought in a future yuga she promises "at that time, O Gods, I shall support the whole world with life sustaining vegetables, born out of my own body, until the rains set in again" ( Devi Mahatmya XI, 45; Agrawala 1963, 141). [BACK]

95. The Gatha do not eat pork except in their ritual capacity as incarnated deities. [BACK]

96. The reason that some of these locations are outside of the present Bhaktapur district is unclear to our informants. These must reflect both boundary changes and special invitations in the years after the inauguration of the dances in, presumably, the sixteenth century. [BACK]

97. According to Gutschow and Basukala (1987), this skullcap represents Guhyesvari. [BACK]

98. Some of the old public squares that were part of the organization of every major twa: and every sub- twa: neighborhood have been disturbed by patterns of building so that they have now become inner courtyards and/or reduced in size. New areas have to be found now in such places for activities attracting large crowds of local people. [BACK]

99. Our description of the pyakha(n) s is based on observations of segments of it, on descriptions given by local people, and on observations by Steven Parish, who was doing research in Bhaktapur at the time this chapter was being revised. [BACK]

100. The basis for the differentiation is the only feature in which the two masks differ, their color. Sima's mask is white and Duma's reddish orange, which reflects a white/red contrast that sometimes designates male/female in Tantric symbolism. [BACK]

101. This is the same procedure by which Tantric physicians try to chase away the spirits that cling to people and cause diseases. This procedure is also used in other contexts to drive away evil influences. New brides, for example, entering a household for the first time are similarly freed of evil influences at the ptkha lakhu , the symbolic boundary of the house. [BACK]

102. This last sacrificial sequence, which is described on the basis of informants' reports, does not occur in all performances of the pyakha(n) . Niels Guts-chow reports that he has never seen it done (personal communication). [BACK]

103. This idea and its development in the following paragraph is indebted to the work of Roy Rappaport (1979). [BACK]

105. This also replicates on a smaller scale the narrative movement in Mohani, where cosmic forces are represented, then gathered together in a bounded, concentrated and maximized form, and then moved out into the life, space, and time of the larger city. [BACK]