Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/426

BRAHMAN flowing with irresistible impetuosity; filled with blood, matter, hair, and bones; infested with huge sharks, crocodiles, and sea monsters; darkened by clouds of hideous vultures and obscene birds of prey. Thousands of condemned spirits stand trembling on the banks, horrified by the prospect before them. Consumed by a raging thirst, they drink the blood which flows at their feet; then, tumbling headlong into the torrent, they are overwhelmed by the rushing waves. Finally, they are hurried down to the lowest depths of hell, and yet not destroyed. Pursued by Yama's officers, they are dragged away, and made to undergo inconceivable tortures, the detail of which is given with the utmost minuteness in the succeeding chapters of the Garuda Purāna."

The Ahannikams, or daily observances, of a religious Brāhman are very many. Nowadays, Brāhmans who lead a purely religious life are comparatively few, and are mostly found in villages. The daily observances of such are the bath, the performance of the Sandhya service, Brahma yagna, Dēva pūja or Dēvatarchana, Tarpana (oblations of water), Vaisvadēva ceremony, and the reading of Purānas or Ithihāsas. Every orthodox Brāhman is expected to rise at the time called Brahma Muhūrtam in the hour and a half before sunrise. He should then clean his teeth, using as a brush mango leaf, or twigs of Acacia arabica or nīm (Melia Azadirachta). He next bathes in a river or tank (pond), standing knee-deep in the water, and repeating the following: — "I am about to perform the morning ablution in this sacred stream (Ganges, Sarasvati, Yamuna, Godāvari, etc.), in the presence of the gods and Brāhmans, with a view to the removal of guilt resulting from act, speech, and thought, from what has been touched and untouched, known and unknown, eaten and not eaten, drunk and