The Shōdasopachāra, or sixteen acts of homage, are next performed in due order, viz.—

While the five stones already referred to are bathed by pouring water from a conch shell, the Purusha Sūktha, or hymn of the Rig Vēda, is repeated. This runs as follows:—“Purusha has thousands of heads, thousands of arms, thousands of eyes, and thousands of feet. On every side enveloping the earth, he transcended this mere space of ten fingers. Purusha himself is this whole (universe); whatever has been, and whatever shall be. He is also the lord of immortality, since through food he expands. Such is his greatness, and Purusha is superior to this. All existing things are a quarter of him, and that which is immortal in the sky is three quarters of him. With three quarters Purusha mounted upwards. A quarter of him was again produced below. He then became diffused everywhere among things, animate and inanimate. From him Viraj was born, and from Viraj Purusha. As soon as born, he extended beyond the earth, both behind and before. When the gods offered up Purusha as a sacrifice, the spring was its clarified butter (ghī), summer its fuel, and the autumn the oblation. This victim, Purusha born in the beginning, they consecrated on the sacrificial grass. With him as their offering, the Gods, Sadhyas, and Rishis sacrificed. From that universal oblations were produced curds and clarified butter. He, Purusha, formed the animals which are subject to the power of the air (Vāyavya), both wild and tame. From that universal sacrifice sprang the hymns called Rik and Saman, the Metres, and the Yajus. From it were produced horses, and all animals with two rows of teeth, cows, goats, and sheep. When they divided Purusha, into how many parts did they distribute him? What was his mouth? What were his arms? What were called his thighs and feet? The Brāhman was his mouth; the Rājanya became his arms; the Vaisya was his thighs; the Sūdra sprang from his feet. The moon was produced from his soul; the sun from his eye; Indra and Agni from his mouth; Vāyu from his breath. From his navel came the atmosphere; from his head arose the sky; from his feet came the earth; from his ears the four quarters; so they formed the worlds. When the gods, in performing their sacrifice, bound Purusha as a victim, there were seven pieces of wood laid for him round the fire, and thrice seven pieces of fuel employed. With sacrifice the gods worshipped the sacrifice. These were the primæval rites. These great beings attained to the heaven, where the Gods, the ancient Sādhyas, reside.”

Some Smarthas, e.g., the Brahacharnams, are more Saivite than other sections of Tamil-speaking Brāhmans. During worship, they wear round the neck rudrāksha (Elæocarpus Ganitrus) beads, and place on their head a lingam made thereof. In connection with the rudrāksha, the legend runs that Siva or Kālāgni Rudra, while engaged in Tripura Samhāra, opened his third eye, which led to the destruction of the three cities, of which Rākshasas or Asuras had taken the form. From this eye liquid is said to have trickled on the ground, and from this arose the rudrāksha tree. The mere mention of the word rudrāksha is believed to secure religious merit, which may be said to be equivalent to the merit obtained by the gift of ten cows to Brāhmans. Rudrāksha beads are valued according to the number of lobes (or faces, as they are called), which are ordinarily five in number. A bead with six lobes is said to be very good, and one with two lobes, called Gauri Sankara rudrāksha, is specially valued. Dīkshitar Brāhmans, and Pandāram priests of the higher order, wear a two-lobed bead mounted in gold. In a manuscript entitled Rudrākshopanishad, it is stated that a good rudrāksha bead, when rubbed with water, should colour the water yellow. The Mādhvas worship in the same way as Smarthas, but the objects of worship are the sālagrāma stone, and images of Hanumān and Ādi Sēsha. Food offered to Ādi Sēsha, Lakshmi, and Hanumān, is not eaten, but thrown away. The Mādhvas attach great importance to their spiritual guru, who is first worshipped by a worshipper. Some keep a brindāvanam, representing the grave of their guru, along with a sālagrāma stone, which is worshipped at the close of the Dēvata pūja. Sri Vaishnavas keep for domestic worship only sālagrāma stones. Like the Mādhvas, they are scrupulous as to the worship of their gurus (ācharyas), without whose intervention they believe that they cannot obtain beatitude. Hence Sri Vaishnavites insist upon the Samāsrayanam ceremony. After the Sandhya service and Brahma yagna, the guru is worshipped. All orthodox Vaishnavas keep with them a silk cloth bearing the impressions of the feet of their Ācharya, an abhayastha or impression of the hand of Vishnu in sandal paste, a few necklaces of silk thread (pavitram), and a bit of the bark of the tamarind tree growing at the temple at Ālvartirunagiri in the Tinnevelly district. The worshipper puts on his head the silk cloth, and round his neck the silk necklaces, and, if available, a necklace of Nelumbium (sacred lotus) seeds. After saluting the abhayastha by pressing it to his eyes, he repeats the prayer of his Ācharya, and proceeds to the Dēvatarchana, which consists in the performance of the sixteen upachāras already described. The sālagrāma stone is bathed, and the Purusha Sūktha repeated.

The daily observances are brought to a close by the performance of the Vaisvadēva ceremony, or offering to Vaisvadēvas (all the gods). This consists in offering cooked rice, etc., to all the gods. Some regard this as a sort of expiatory ceremony, to wipe out the sin which may have accidentally been committed by killing small animals in the process of cooking food.

Smartha Brāhman (Brahacharnam) Doing Siva Worship.

The male members of a family take their meals apart from the females. The food is served on platters made of the leaves of the banyan (Ficus bengalensis), Butea frondosa, Bauhinia, or plantain. Amongst Smarthas and Mādhvas, various vegetable preparations are served first, and rice last, whereas, amongst the Sri Vaishnavas, especially Vadagalais, rice is served first. Before commencing to eat, a little water (tīrtham), in which a sālagrāma stone has been bathed, is poured into the palms of those who are about to partake of the meal. They drink the water simultaneously, saying “Amartopastaranamasi.” They then put a few handfuls of rice into their mouths, repeating some mantras—“Pranāyasvāha, Udanayasvāha, Somanayasvāha,” etc. At the end of the meal, all are served with a little water, which they sip, saying “Amartapithānamasi.” They then rise together.

In connection with the sālagrāma stone, which has been referred to several times, the following interesting account thereof[97] may be quoted:—“Sālagrāms are fossil cephalopods (ammonites), and are found chiefly in the bed of the Gandak river, a mountain torrent which, rising in the lofty mountains of Nepal, flows into the Ganges at Sālagrāmi, a village from which they take their name, and which is not far from the sacred city of Benares. In appearance they are small black shiny pebbles of various shapes, usually round or oval, with a peculiar natural hole in them. They have certain marks to be described later, and are often flecked and inlaid with gold [or pyrites]. The name sālagrām is of Sanskrit derivation, from sara chakra, the weapon of Vishnu, and grava, a stone; the chakra or chakram being represented on the stone by queer spiral lines, popularly believed to be engraved thereon at the request of Vishnu by the creator Brahma, who, in the form of a worm, bores the holes known as vadanas, and traces the spiral coil that gives the stone its name. There is a curious legend connected with their origin. In ancient times there lived a certain dancing-girl, the most beautiful that had ever been created, so beautiful indeed that it was impossible to find a suitable consort for her. The girl, in despair at her loveliness, hid herself in the mountains, in the far away Himalayas, and there spent several years in prayer, till at last Vishnu appeared before her, and asked what she wanted. She begged him to tell her how it was that the great creator Brahma, who had made her so beautiful, had not created a male consort for her of similar perfect form. Then she looked on Vishnu, and asked the god to kiss her. Vishnu could not comply with her request as she was a dancing-girl, and of low caste, but promised by his virtue that she should be reincarnated in the Himalayas in the form of a river, which should bear the name Gandaki, and that he would be in the river as her eternal consort in the shape of a sālagrām. Thereupon the river Gandaki rose from the Himalayas, and sālagrāms were found in it. How the true virtue of the sālagrām was discovered is another strange little fable. A poor boy of the Kshatriya or warrior class once found one when playing by the river side. He soon discovered that when he had it in his hand, or secreted in his mouth, or about his person, his luck was so extraordinary at marbles or whatever game he played, that he always won. At last he so excelled in all he undertook that he rose to be a great king. Finally Vishnu himself came to fetch him, and bore him away in a cloud. The mystic river Gandaki is within the jurisdiction of the Mahārāja of Nepal, and is zealously guarded on both banks, while the four special places where the sacred stones are mostly picked up are leased out under certain conditions, the most important being that all true sālagrāms found are to be submitted to the Mahārāja. These are then tested, the selected ones retained, and the others returned to the lessee. The first test of the sālagrāms to prove if they are genuine is very simple, but later they are put through other ordeals to try their supernatural powers. Each stone, as it is discovered, is struck on all sides with a small hammer, or, in some cases, is merely knocked with the finger. This causes the soft powdery part, produced by the boring of the worm, to fall in and disclose the vadana or hole, which may, in the more valuable sālagrāms, contain gold or a precious gem. In addition to the real stone with chakram and vadana formed by natural causes, there are found in many mountain streams round black pebbles resembling the true sālagrām in colour, shape, and size, but lacking the chakram and vadana. These are collected by Bairāgis, or holy mendicants, who bore imitation vadanas in them, and, tracing false chakrams in balapa or slate stone, paste them on the pebbles. So skilfully is this fraud perpetrated that it is only after years of use and perpetual washing at the daily pūja that in time the tracery wears away, and detection becomes possible. There are over eighteen known and different kinds of true sālagrāms, the initial value of which varies according to the shape and markings of the stone. The price of any one sālagrām may be so enhanced after the further tests have been applied, that even a lakh of rupees (Rs. 1,00,000) will fail to purchase it; and, should experience prove the stone a lucky one, nothing will, as a rule, induce the fortunate owner to part with it. The three shapes of sālagrāms most highly prized are known as the Vishnu sālagrām, the Lakshmi Narasimha sālagrām, and the Mutchya Murti sālagrām. The first has a chakram on it the shape of a garland, and bears marks known as the shenka (conch) gada padma, or the weapons of Vishnu, and is peculiar to that god. The second has two chakrams on the left of the vadana, and has dots or specks all over it. This stone, if properly worshipped, is believed to ensure to its owner prosperity and eternal life. The third, the Mutchya Murti, is a long-shaped flat stone with a vadana that gives it a resemblance to the face of a fish. It bears two chakrams, one inside and one outside the vadana, and also has specks and dots on it in the shape of a shoe. There are four or five varieties of this species, and it also, if duly worshipped, will infallibly enrich its possessor. One sālagrām there is which has no vadana, and is known as the ugra chakra sālagrām. It is quite round with two chakrams, but it is not a particularly safe one to possess, and is described as a ‘furious sālagrāma,’ for, if not worshipped with sufficient ardour, it will resent the neglect, and ruin the owner. The first thing to do on obtaining a sālagrām is to find out whether or not it is a lucky stone, for a stone that will bring luck to one owner may mean ruin for another. The tests are various; a favourite one is to place the sālagrām with its exact weight of rice together in one place for the night. If the rice has increased in the morning (and, in some cases, my informant assures me, it will be found to have doubled in quantity), then the stone is one to be regarded by its lucky holder as priceless, and on no account to be parted with. If, on the other hand, the rice measures the same, or—dreadful omen—has even become less, then let the house be rid of it as early as possible. If no purchaser can be found, make a virtue of necessity, and send it as a present to the nearest temple or mutt (religious institution), where the Gurus know how to appease the wrath of the Deity with daily offerings of fruits and flowers. A sālagrām will never bring any luck if its possession is acquired by fraud or force. The story runs that once a Brāhman, finding one with a Mahomedan butcher, obtained it by theft. The luckless man speedily rued the day of his time, for, from that time onwards, nothing prospered, and he ended his days a destitute pauper. Again, possession of them without worship is believed by all Hindus to be most unlucky, and, as none but Brāhmans can perform the worship, none but Brāhmans will retain the stones in their keeping. For an orthodox Brāhman household, the ownership of three or more stones is an absolute necessity. These must be duly worshipped and washed with water, and the water drunk as tīrtha, and sacrifice of boiled rice and other food must be daily performed. When this is done, speedy success in all the business of life will fall to the lot of the inmates of the house, but otherwise ruin and disgrace await them.”

In some temples, the Mūla Vigraha, or idol fixed in the inner sanctuary, is decorated with a necklace of sālagrāma stones. For example, at Tirupati the god is thus decorated.