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worshipping the Linga during the night; but the ritual is loaded with a vast number of directions, not only for the presentation of offerings of various kinds to the Linga, but for gesticulations to be employed, and prayers to be addressed to various subordinate divinities connected with Siva, and to Siva himself in a variety of forms. After bathing in the morning, the worshipper recites his Sankalpa, or pledges himself to celebrate the worship. He repeats the ablution in the evening, and going afterwards to a temple of Śiva, renews his pledge, saying, "I will perform the worship of Siva, in the hope of accomplishing all my wishes, of obtaining long life, and progeny, and wealth, and for the expiation of all sins of whatever dye I may have committed during the past year, open or secret, knowingly or unknowingly, in thought, or act, or speech." He then scatters mustard-seed with special mantras, and offers an argha; after which he goes through the mátŕiká nyása, -a set of gesticulations accompanied by short mystical prayers, consisting chiefly of unmeaning syllables, preceded by a letter of the alphabet: as, A-kam, Á-srán, salutation to the thumb; I-chan, Í-sŕín, salutation to the forefinger; U-stan, Ú-stúm, salutation to the middle-finger; and so on, going through the whole of the alphabet with a salutation, or namaskár, to as many parts of the body, touching each in succession, and adding, as the Mantras proceed, names of the Mátris, female
*
OF THE HINDUS.
[See Pránatoshaní, f. 173, b, 1. 2.]
