On the Lord of the Universe's bathing paraphernalia
Among the articles required for the daily ritual worship in the Sri Jagannath Temple at Puri are three mirrors. The mirrors are made of
brass, having no part of glass, and each
is about two and half feet high. The mirrors are disc shaped and
mounted on a stand. Both surfaces of the disc are well polished.
These mirrors are used at the time of abakash of the Deities, which
refers to the cleaning of the teeth and bath of the Deities. This
religious rite is performed subsequent to the dwaraphita, or (opening of
the temple doors in the early morning), the mangala arotik and the
mailam (removal of flowers, clothes, etc. decked on the Deities the
previous night).
The scheduled time for abakash is at 6:30 in
the morning, as specified in the "Record of Rights" of the temple. The
sevaks (servitors) associated with this service are pushpalak, meaning 3
persons, and there are many such servitors: Paniapat, Suarbadu,
Khatulisevak, Mukhapakhala-Padhiary, Mukhapakhala-Puspalak, Garabadu,
Amla-Ghatuary, Mahabhoi, Jyotisha-Khurinayak, Bhandar-Mekap and
Darpania.
The pushpalak sevaks perform the abakash ritual
sitting on the floor below the ratnavedi (pedestal) in the temple's sanctum sanctorum. They sprinkle water mixed with camphor, curd,
sandal paste and amla fruit paste onto the three brass mirrors placed on
the floor. There is a mirror for each one of the three Deities - Lord
Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and Devi Subhadra. The mirrors symbolize the
Deities taking Their bath. During the abakash rites, the temple
Jyotisha (astrologer) reads out the tithi (timing) and other
astrological details of the day to the Deities.
Before the bath,
the sevaks show toothsticks and tongue scrappers to the Deities,
symbolizing the cleaning of Their teeth and tongues. One such mirror is
also used in the Pushyaviseka ritual of Lord Jagannath, which is
celebrated on the full moon day in the month of Pausha.
There
is also a ritual service known as Darpania Seva in the temple. The word
'darpan' means 'mirror' in English. The sevak of this service, Darpania
Sevak, is in charge of keeping the mirrors for the rituals. He also
cleans certain utensils used in the rituals, on a place called
anasarapindi after mangal arotik is over.
The Srimad Bhagavata (book eleven) mentions the necessity of a mirror as an article of paraphernalia. In Tibetan Buddhism, a mirror (in their parlance, adarsha) is used in rituals. In Oriya, the words adarsha, darpana, aaina, aarisi, and mukura convey the same meaning, i.e., 'mirror'. The mirror (adarsha) of Tibetan Buddhism has a close resemblance to that of the Puri
temple.
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