Page:The Sundhya, or, the Daily Prayers of the Brahmins.djvu/33



the worship of this Deity the devotee requests grandeur and wealth. The horn of the deer is blown in this Pooja: offerings of fruit and sweetmeats are laid upon the Nundee; also the leaves of the bale-fruit tree, white flowers, a few blades of the dhoop-ghas (hay). The jeneo (brahmin-thread) is rolled up with areeka-nut and betel-leaves. The sign worn in this Pooja of Mahadeo is this, drawn with yellow sandal. The head, neck, and wrist are adorned with strings of the Roodrakh (the dried berries of the Eleocarpus).

(Here the devotee takes up water in the palm of his right hand. After repeating the foregoing lines he sprinkles it under the mat upon which he is seated, puts some drops into his mouth, and, filling his half-closed palm with fresh water, says)—

"Om Hrang, Hring, Hrong, Shivaya-nama."

(Then raising his joined hands to his head reverentially to the Deity, he spreads out his hands and fingers, which he slides down his whole figure from head to foot, and then makes the signs of the Kurna-nyas, after which the signs of the Hridayadi-nyas; then closing his eyes and folding his arms he proceeds to an inward contemplation of the gods, saying)—

(The devotee here makes a rough image, of mud, of Mahadeo, and places it upon the singhasun; then throws over it some grains of raw rice, and white flowers of dhatoora, saying)—

(Then putting in the urgha some raw rice, flowers, and sandal, and holding it between his hands, he stands up before the idol).