Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Página 622

582
CONSECRATING IDOLS AND TEMPLES
are of stone, while those carried in procession through the
streets are of metal, as are also the domestic gods which
every Brahmin keeps and worships in his house. It is
forbidden to make idols of wood or other easily destructible
material.
I know only one, that of the goddess Mari-amma,
which is of wood. For this image the wood of a certain tree
employed, the trunk of which is red inside, and which,
cut, exudes a sap the colour of blood, a characteristic
which accords well with the merciless nature of this cruel
divinity.
It is true, one also often sees statues of clay or
of masonry, but these are not of much account, and inspire
very little veneration.
No idol can become an object of worship until it has
been duly consecrated by a number of ceremonies. It is
necessary first of all that the deity should be invoked, in
order that it may fix its abode in the idol, and be incor-
porated with it and this must be done by a Brahmin
New temples are also subjected to a solemn
purohita.
is
when
;
inauguration, and all objects destined for their service
must be formally consecrated. Both temples and idols
are liable to be desecrated on many occasions.
If, for
example, a European, a Mahomedan, or a Pariah un-
fortunately entered a sanctuary or touched an idol, that
very instant the divinity would take its departure. And
in order to induce it to return, all the ceremonies would
have to be begun over again, and performed more elaborately
and at greater cost than before.
Besides the idols which are to be found inside every
temple, the walls and four sides of the supporting pillars
are covered with various figures.
On the facade of the
building niches are arranged, to contain symbolical figures
representing men and animals, for the most part in indecent
attitudes.
Furthermore, the walls of the temple enclosure,
which are no less thick and solid than the actual buildings,
are also sometimes covered with these obscene or grotesque
images.
Outside the shrine, opposite and close to the
entrance door, and sometimes in the middle of one of the
courts, there is commonly seen a granite pillar, from forty
to fifty feet high, octagonal in shape, and square at the
base of the shaft
on each side of the lower part figures
are sculptured.
The pedestal is a solid mass of hewn
;