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SVASTI – Essays in Honour of Prof. Hampa Nagarajaiah
blessings is believed when a layman is being touched by the peacock-feather brush (pincha) of an ascetic. Another haptic event is -- connected with sound -- the vibration. Especially the intruding sounds of the wind instruments such as the nāgasvaram, and the loud drums, make the bodies of the participants vibrate in a certain rhythm. That might have a more intuitive effect on subconscious levels, according to the reflective perceiving capacity of the individual; but in any case these powerful sounds touch not only the ears but go through the body and deepen the experience of the event in an unforgettable mind impressing way.
All these observations have to be analysed together with information we get from studying the Jaina ritual of worship (pūjā) in general, including mythological connections, theoretical considerations and beliefs about the meaning of colours, stones, godly sounds and vibrations, plants and so forth. So far I have dealt with aisthetic dimensions accepted by Western science. If we include the well-known Indian concepts of inner organs of perception, like the inner eye, the inner ear, the inner tongue etc., and make interviews with religiously advanced practitioners such as nuns and monks, the interpretational possibilities multiply, because there is an extra interpretation and concept for every sense organ for which the researcher has made his "outer" observations. These might also not be the same as for Indian participants just traditionally living their culture and religion, and not seeing the ritual in agreement with these more philosophical categories but just living their "normal" way of performing or watching or experiencing the ritual. This becomes clear when looking at the "spiritual" dimension, that means the description of how the participants experience and interpret the "outer" sensory perceptions according to their mental capacity of experiencing. These might also include (according to Western academic standard) scientifically not provable notions and ideas of mental perception and transformation. These observations would, according to the general Indian understanding of science, be called scientific on the base of their supposed repeatability, but here I wish only to mention that these inner experiences are claimed and interpreted in a certain way. This spiritual satisfaction is the main reason for coming to the Mahāmastakābhiseka, especially for the monks, nuns and novices, in other words: for the professional religious experts and performers. Most of the laypeople feel religiously elated and harmonized by the extraordinary sight of the gigantic ritual, purified by the travails of travel, by the presence in the pilgrimage centre (kşetra) as such, and as already mentioned, in the case of those who were so fortunate, by the blessing touch of the peacock-feather brush of an ascetic; for the monks, nuns and novices especially the inner participation is an element of their spitirual path (sādhanā). For instance, the colours have further, deeper, symbolic meanings for the ascetics: white stands for the
