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62 Śramaņa, Vol 64, No. 1, Jan.-Mar. 2013
pure clothing, to emphasize the goal of purifying one's soul of the stain of karmic bondage. As an act of separation from the profane world, some Jains will recite three times an ancient Präkṛta phrase. While taking darśana of the idol of Jina, the worshipper imagines that he or she is not just in front of a metal or stone image but is in the actual presence of the Jina, who is a witness to the individual's spiritual efforts. The water and other articles used in the ritual bathing of the Tirthankara's images are treated as carrying healing properties. The sandalwood water collected after giving bath to Jain idols (called gandhodaka) is applied to the bodies of the worshippers (preferably on frencad, eyes and ears) transmitting the sacred power of the image to the worshipper. In case of illness or injury, it can be directly applied to afflicted parts of the body with beneficial results. The power of this sacramental water is decided on the basis of the history of the image. For the devotees certain questions like how the idol was created? Who was the officiating ascetic at the time of the image consecration and the historical- mythical sanctity of the venue of the image? etc. becomes significant to hold their belief in the healing properties of the idol. The power of the sacramental water is associated with the power of the image which in turn is circumstantial. At times the images consecrated by the most revered medieval Jain pontiffs particularly the Svetambara Khartar Gaccha Dādāgurus or Tapā Gaccha Hiravijaya Sūrī have been seen as the most effective in healing properties due to their mantra induced power. Thus the cosmos of the Jain images has a materialistic ancestry of the past and their contemporary importance is established on the basis of a certain lineage." Thus the healing properties of sacramental water celebrates a particular past of hierarchies and if it does not work may always be explained in terms of deteriorating ritualistic means be it in terms of the worshipper beneficiary or de-plenishing power of the venue of the image. Thus on the one hand application of the sacramental water establish a direct relationship between the image incarnated God and the worshipper but on the other hand the process of the consecration of the image itself carries a socio-economic legacy to transmit its ritualistic conditions. This in turn also answers
