Page:Durga Puja - With Notes and Illustrations.djvu/72

 Next offer the silver seat by first purifying it with a flower and water, and thrice repeating Vam, Om obeisance to the silver seat, Om this chandan and flower to its lord Vishnu, Om to the donee of this my obeisance, Om Hrim this silver seat to Durga, the destroyer of the sacrifice of Daksha, the most terrible, surrounded by a million of yoginis, thou Bhadrakali.

Then offer a brazen pot filled with water for washing the feet of Durga and arghya, previously established, chandan with the cup, flowers, a garland, a pair of clothes, dhupa incense, a lamp, water for drinking in brass tumblers, water for washing in pots, water for bathing in large brazen pots, and then rice and fruits and other edibles and betel leaves, spices and nuts &c. &c., and lastly a bed with the bedstead.

In this way the Goddess is worshipped every morning from pratipada to the sixth day of the moon. One of the officiating priests reads the Devimahatmya(27) from the Markandeya Purana, and the tantradharaka helps the pujaka priest in the worship. A separate priest is appointed to repeat the mula mantra a hundred thousand times, and he is called the japaka. In some houses the pujaka after finishing the puja commences the homa. After the puja every forenoon and evening