Worship Worthy of the Gods: Social Change
and Relevance of Sanskrit Ritual [3]

Kartik Venkatesh

Introduction

Popular notion often equates Classics with the study of languages and civilizations of antiquity. Clearly, the scope of each of the great culture-bearing languages of antiquity has become gradually circumscribed in the course of history. While only a handful of aca­demics are able to read the texts of some of these Classical lan­guages and understand the ceremonies in which they were used, others are preserved in a broader circle of usage. For example, pre­served as the special ceremonial language of the Roman Catholic Church until Vatican II in 1963, Latin ceded scope dramatically after Vatican II when Pope Paul allowed the extended use of the vernacular in the liturgy. [4] Yet until Vatican II, Latin played a vibrant role in society through the training, administration, and ceremonial usage of Catholic clergy.

In the case of the Sanskrit tradition, a vibrant and highly established oral scholarly tradition has kept Sanskrit a living cul­tural experience in which rituals, texts, and customs have been passed down orally. Throughout many parts of South Asia, Tibet, and Southeast Asia, Sanskrit (or a close derivative called Pali/ Prakrit) was and remains the language of textualized ritual. Perhaps the longevity and survival of the Sanskrit tradition is because of society’s belief in Sanskrit’s intrinsic value and the willingness to allow for the adaptation of Sanskrit for changing social contexts. Unlike vernacular languages, Sanskrit is believed to have soterio­logical value—Sanskrit allows for direct communication to the gods. Thus, individuals gain merit through merely speaking the language.

Sanskrit ritual is a rather broad term referring to a hierarchical and diverse group of specific rituals—certain rituals date back to the period of the Vedas while other Sanskrit rituals are constantly being created today. Classed into many categories based on region, texts used, and sectarian group, Sanskrit rituals are an uninter­rupted tradition dating back over 3,000 years. These rituals can be classed into multiple categories based on various schemes, such as temple vs. home, Agamic [5] vs. Vedic [6] , regional vs. all-India, and tex­tual vs. popular. Popular indigenous categories of ritual include yajna (fire worship), samskara (rites of passage), utsava (festival), vrata (vows), arcana (offering at a temple), and puja. These schemes of ritual classification can be identified as pan-Indian; most of these categories are fluid, and often component ritual steps overlap one another. Here, the focus is on a class of rituals collec­tively called puja.

Pujas can be performed both at home and at a temple either by an officiating ritualist or by a lay practitioner. Although significant regional and sectarian variety exists within India, the basic thematic and structural components of the ritual are generally universal. The theme of puja can be explored through sub-dividing puja rituals based on indigenous schemes of sect and textualization along with spatial and thematic factors. As the goal here is a broad overview, puja will be explored through its thematic and structural underpin­nings, followed by a brief summary of the practitioners and puja’s social relevance in contemporary India and in the United States.

Coming to a Definition of Puja

Since time immemorial, ritual has had the power to unite a community through making the inner ideas and beliefs shared by a group into a physical tangible reality. Ritual acts can serve as a medium for individuals to identify with one another and to connect to a common cultural and historical heritage. Puja as ritual is a tan­gible means to express reverence and devotion to the gods. Puja is not a specific ritual to a certain deity, rather it is a descriptive term that refers to a number of rituals practiced both in the home and temple. Thus, pujas can range between a simple event performed by a single individual to massive public gatherings uniting an entire local community. Courtright describes the shear diversity of ritual puja observances of a single festival, in this case the festival of Ganesha called Ganesha Chaturthi in Maharashtra State (Western India):

Acts of private prayer and meditation, communal singing of devo­tional songs, calendrical rites and vows, pilgrimages to sacred shrines, and the annual public festival to Ganesa together make up the whole fabric of means by which Hindus articulate their relation­ship to him. (1985: 161)

Any of the previous modes of ritual could be classified under the heading of puja. When categorizing puja and reflecting upon the internal logic of the ritual, clear sequential subgroups are quickly apparent. Ostor describes puja as being composed of three basic components of idiom, action and symbol:

As an idiom it states how one must act and how these actions relate to others outside the scope of the festival. . . .Puja is elaborated in a series of ideologies, sects, forms, and meanings, but it rests on a fundamental structure. (1980: 6)

In terms of idiom, the puja is a manner for the practitioner to personalize the deity as a living presence in the form of a guest. Although allowing for significant improvisation and substitutions, the puja basically lays out a sequential ritual protocol where the deity is first invoked followed by a series of upachara (offerings). Many puja vidhanam or puja method texts published in vernacular Indian languages basically give the sequential ordering of puja steps that the practitioner can then follow. The component of symbol is apparent in the theological perspective the practitioner takes in defining the purpose of puja. For example, a follower of Advaitic philosophy or Monism (Non-Dualism) may view the puja as an externalization of the internal divinity in the form of an image and various ritual objects where the deity invoked in the image is no different from the atma (divine spirit) that dwells within oneself. A ritualist of Vaishnava or related Madhva philosophical leanings may view puja rituals in dualistic terms where there is a definite delineation between the jivatman (individual) and the paramatman (deity in the image). Even though the fundamental structure of the puja regarding ritual offerings and texts may very well be the same between sects, the significance and logic behind the ritual’s sequen­tial offerings may vary extensively based on the philosophical approach an individual takes towards the puja’s performance.

Thematic Implications of Puja

Externalization of the Internal

A general belief is that puja or any other Sanskrit ritual is per­formed for either of two basic principles: for individual/community spiritual awakening or for achieving a specific objective. Tachikawa describes the two possible aims of puja through a textual and picto­rial documentation of puja in two temples in Puna, Maharashtra:

That which takes as its goal the spiritual well-being of the individ­ual; and that which has the purpose of enabling the group or the soci­ety to operate smoothly (festivals, initiation rites, etc.). (2001: v)

Ostor (1985) divides the aims of puja into the traditional classifica­tion based upon the three gunas [7] (attributes) of tamasic, rajasic, and satvic actions, where a puja performed for spiritual upliftment is more noble, and hence satvic, compared to puja performed for the sole purpose of obtaining a material boon. Generally, pujas per­formed in the temple are more likely to have as their aim the collec­tive well-being of society, while home rituals may center on indi­vidual or family needs. However, there are many exceptions where individuals sponsor a puja at a temple for the fulfillment of a per­sonal wish and householders perform a puja for broader social pur­poses.

In puja, the physical externalization of the deity makes the invoked deity come to life. Pujas are performed as acts of demon­strating a believer’s faith through a physical tangible means. Through externalizing the deity that dwells within oneself, the practitioner brings the deity to life in the form of the kalasha (ves­sel) with coconut, image, or picture. Even though pujas can seem bewilderingly complex due to the diversity of texts employed and individual improvisation, certain physical components of the puja are the same throughout India irregardless of subgroup, sect, and house vs. temple. Certain steps such the purification of the sur­roundings, making upachara (offerings to the deity), and abhisheka (ritual bath) are ritual components that make up the fundamental organization of puja. These physically externalized ritual steps allow for momentary temporal connection to the world of the gods through the medium of Sanskrit.

Zones of Purity and Pollution

The purity of both the officiant and the surroundings are per­vasive to all forms of Sanskrit ceremonialism and is central to the efficacy of the puja. Purity allows for the officient to have the credibility and power to invoke the deity and also a means to show requisite respect and reverence to the deity being invoked. Babb (1975: 48) reveals the importance and central nature of purity in Indian ceremonialism through comparing purity with its polar opposite, pollution through the medium of ritual materials. For instance, purity takes the physical form in the ritual as water, cer­tain customarily pure natural items such as curd, fresh fruits, rice grains, and flower petals. The practitioner physically becomes pure through taking a bath, wearing appropriate clothing such as unstitched white silk, and fasting prior to the puja. Purity is also apparent though the medium of mantra—mantra purifies the per­son and surroundings of the puja. Ostor (1985) remarks that man­tra has its own independent purifying power outside the context of puja where mantra can be replaced for actual ritual offerings. Thus, mantra as Sanskrit chants serves as much more than mere words; it serves as a form of divine power to connect the human and divine realms. Many ritualists recommend that if an officient does not have the requisite ritual objects, merely chanting the mantras with faith (Skt: bhakti) is sufficient to accrue the desired result. Mantra serves to purify the individual and the ritual surroundings of the puja.

The concept of purity is readily apparent in the sequence of steps performed in the puja. The ritualist begins the puja by per­forming achamana [8] (taking three sips of water) to purify the inter­nal self. Later, during the kalasha puja [9] where the seven sacred riv­ers of India are invoked in the kalasa (pot), the ritualist sprinkles the sanctified water on the ritual objects, materials, and partici­pants in the puja. Once the ritualist has purified both his/her inter­nal and external self along with the ritual objects and surroundings of the puja, a momentary artificial pure atmosphere is created for invoking the gods:

The ritual event may be said to take place in a thoroughly artificial environment—one created and maintained by elaborate requirements of washing and treatment with purifying substances, and by equally elaborate restrictions of physical propinquity and contact. As such, it is a delicate state, which the very dust of the streets may defile. (Babb 1975: 51)

Thus, the individual practitioner is rigorously trying to maintain this state of purity, since the state of pollution is the constant state of existence that is temporarily transcended during the puja. Water is central  to purification  due to its inherent  power to purify, as in

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ekambareshware Temple, located in Kanchipuram,
Tamil Nadu, India, dating from over 1600 years ago.
This is a center of classical Agamic Sanskrit temple ritual.

Photograph by Kartik Venkatesh. Used by persmission.

the case of the sacred rivers of India, and in its potency to absorb and remove pollution.

Time: Auspicious and Inauspicious

Linked to the notion of purity and impurity is the conception of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness. Khare, in his study of food rituals, associated with various samskaras (rites of passage) ceremonies makes a distinct delineation between purity and auspi­ciousness:

. . .the value of ritual of purity that must be ultimately directed towards either maintaining or catering to religious aims of the indi­vidual appears conceptually distinguished from auspiciousness which represents a dominant Hindu value of collective life. (1992: 157)

Here, purity is associated with the individual, while auspiciousness is identified with the collective pursuit of a group. Dumont (1980) identifies the issue of purity as underlying the entire caste system. In this case, purity is not a factor of individual identity, but is a now in the realm of society as a whole. In the case of puja, purity and auspiciousness commingle both in the context of individual house puja and congregational puja. Both concepts appear to be inextricably linked with each other in ritual. Marglin studies the idea of auspiciousness in relation to the devadasis (temple danc­ers)—this practice is no longer current—of the Jaganatha Temple of Puri in Orissa State (Eastern India):

Auspiciousness and inauspiciousness speak of fertility, birth, growth, decay, and death. These are processes which unfold in time. . . .The pure/impure speaks of order and stasis whereas auspiciousness and inauspiciousness speak of movement and transformations. (1985: 21)

In puja, auspiciousness is present in the form of time when the practitioner states the intent and purpose of the puja (Skt: Maha sankapa). The formulaic passage, traditionally chanted, leaves spaces for the practitioner to interject the appropriate information, such as tithi (day of the week), masa (month), vasara (year), and nakshatra (astrological asterism). The day, year, and asterism are said in Sanskrit according to the pancanga [10] (religious calendar). Marglin says:

This relationship between time, auspiciousness, and inauspiciousness is known from the almanacs published throughout India by the astrologers, called pancanga. . . . (1985: 195).

The practitioner refers to the pancanga [11] as a guide when per­forming a ritual in order to verify necessary astrological information and the appropriate day for conducting the puja. The day for per­forming many pujas varies each year and each month depending on the astrological constellations. However, many pujas can be per­formed at only specified auspicious times of the day according to astrological specifications. Purity does not exist in an exclusive realm outside of auspiciousness. The conception of time is central to performing a puja. The merit and the fulfillment of wishes for which the devotee seeks are directly tied to when the puja is per­formed at the auspicious time deemed auspicious by the pancanga. 

Time: Temporal and Cosmic Identifications

The conception of time as auspicious exists on multiple planes of both temporal and cosmic dimensions. At the temporal level, time is demarcated by nakshatra (asterism) and the other divisions of time described as part of the maha sankalpa. Auspiciousness at the temporal level is thus determined by a physical astrological event, such as the various constellations of the planets. Time is given divine relevance through an identification scheme where each day of the week has a religious and planetary identification by association with a planetary deity or other specific deity. In the puja, auspiciousness at the cosmic level is determined by the navargraha (nine planets) and ashtadikpalaka (eight directional deities). [12] In the navagraha devata puja, the ritualist invokes the nine cosmic planetary deities: Surya (Sun), Chandra (Moon), Angaraka (Mars), Budha (Mercury), Guru (Jupiter), Sukra (Venus), Sani (Saturn), Rahu (Dragons Head), and Ketu (Dragons Tail). Each planet has complementary positive and negative attri­butes that are correspondingly connected to auspicious and inaus­picious time. The planetary deities play a central role in Indian astrology where veneration of the navagraha (planetary deities) signifies the divine grace that complements human action. The practitioner seeks the assistance of the planetary deities during times of turmoil for extra strength. Each of the nine deities is repre­sented in the ritual with a different grain, such as rice and various lentil varieties. The grain is distributed into a specific geometric pattern on top of a colored cloth special to that planetary deity. Furthermore, the nine deities are established as a mandala (cosmo­logical geometric pattern) where each is placed dependent to its requisite direction. Thus, the worship of the nine planets serves as the momentary externalization of cosmic time viewed in a temporal sense through a dualistic relationship between auspicious and inauspicious time.

Deity as Guest

Beyond the thematic notions of purity and auspiciousness, puja rests on a fundamental understanding where the ritualist invokes and invites the deity as a guest. The fact that the deity is invoked as guest reflects the high status traditionally accorded to a guest in Indian society. The deity is offered water, food items, ornaments, and clothing in a manner similar to the treatment of a guest visiting from a distant land. Ostor explains the underlying concept of the deity as guest:

“Deities are part of this world as men know it, but when the spatial festival of a deity is celebrated the god is regarded as a traveler from a distant land visiting his followers, devotes, and subjects. . . .When a deity is invited for a celebration out of time and out of place, one of his many functions and meanings is selected for special contempla­tion. (1985: 50-1)

Here then is the major and most significant difference between puja conducted in the home and in the temple—the deity is always pre­sent in the temple and does not need to be expressly invoked. However, in the case of the home or any locale outside of the tem­ple, the deity must be invoked for a temporary period of time through the ritual step of pratishta [13] :

“The long series of purifications serve to remove the priest from everyday life into the world of the gods, where he can take the life within him and offer it to the image. The life he gives is part of all living beings, a part of Brahman itself, the Universal Being” (Ostor, 1985: 78).

Puja is a ritual of making offerings to a deity as a guest. In the temple, the deity is not a guest who is making a temporary visit—the temple is the home of the gods where they dwell perma­nently. This framework also encompasses the major difference between the Vaidika and Agama traditions. The Agamas (written for temple ritual) presuppose the existence of a temple where the deity is already present. All ritual is centered on the notion of a permanently present deity, while in the Vaidika (or Vedic) tradi­tion there is no assumption of a temple. Temples following the Vedic tradition in India are modeled on the earlier temporary Vedic structures described in Srautasutra texts. Vaidika rituals thus do not presuppose the existence of massive temple rituals.

Even though a puja may be dedicated to a specific deity, an entire family of ancillary deities is invoked as guests as well. In the case of the festival of the Navaratri, [14] the nine planetary deities, the eight directional deities, the five central deities of the pantheon (pancapalaka), and the male counterpart of each goddess are sys­tematically invoked. [15] In fact, the portion of the puja dedicated to subsidiary deities may be more substantial in comparison to the actual time dedicated to the worship of the central deity. Ostor describes this intricate hierarchy of deities in the case of Kali Puja [16] in Bengal:

All deities stand in a particular and unique relation to human life; hence to ignore the other deities would amount to detracting from the totality of living experience in the world. (1985: 113)

Each deity has a uniquely defined role and place in relation to the other deities; the practitioner cannot invite the main deity until all other divine attendants and gods are invoked. Consequently the invocation is done in a hierarchical scheme where subsidiary deities are classified from the bottom to the top culminating in the invoca­tion of the central deity. Each deity stands in a specific relation to the central deity of the ritual based on theological, traditional, and mythological conceptions: “Different deities, or the same deity, may stand in certain kind of relationship to a locality, a social group, a social experience, and a situation. The hierarchy of deities is separated from oneness  in terms of  localities and situations is to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entrance of Vidyashankara Temple, located in Sringeri, Karnataka,
India. Inside the gates guarded by these guardian deities is the
central sanctum, which is the center of temple Sanskrit ritual.

Photograph by Kartik Venkatesh. Used by permission.

be found in the structure of society, time and cosmology” (Ostor 1985: 191). These intricate relationships may change depending on the central deity being invoked and the purpose of the puja. The cosmological hierarchy of deities is made real in the puja where dei­ties are invoked in a structured fashion through mantra and physi­cal representation.

Puja as Practiced Today in the
United States and in India

When attempting to study puja rituals and their social context, there are clearly multiple approaches that can be taken due to the vast regional, cultural, and social differences within India. In any specific region of India, multiple sectarian communities, such as Saiva, Smartha, and Vaishnava, practice parallel ritual traditions. The complexity of the ritual scene in America and increasingly in India is further complicated with the mixing of multiple regional groups. Babb poses the problem between merging the traditions of North and South India in the case of the local community of Singa­pore:

It has been pointed out that differences of this (regional) order may merely mask more fundamental structural continuities, . . . .these dif­ferences are sufficiently great to pose a formidable barrier to a blend­ing of Northern and Southern patterns of ritual practice. (1997: 165)

Interestingly, the issues of regional barriers are readily apparent in the ritual practices of practitioners in the United States. Today elaborate pujas are being performed, here in the West, many times more scripturally authentic than in the country of origin. Puja in the temple as a congregation [17] seems to be increasingly popular in the West.

The impression of an American temple on an important festi­val day can be created by considering a typical puja scene from a major American temple. Following the elaborate bathing ritual of a black granite image housed in the sanctum, accompanied by a cho­rus of men chanting the rhythmic Sanskrit Vedic texts, the officiat­ing priests begin to elaborately decorate the deity in fragrant flow­ers, semi-precious gems, golden jewelry, and fine silk. Simultane­ously, a group of priests perform an elaborate fire ritual or yajna as a sacrifice to the Vedic deities. A group of sari-clad women are singing the hymns of the Saiva saints, while an ensemble of musi­cians equipped with traditional drums, reed clarinets, and symbols begin to play for the deity. The entire audience watching the ritual is enraptured in this apparent chaos of multiple ceremonies. Such a ritual scenario might conjure an image of an ancient temple in a dis­tant village in South India outside of the realm of modernity and globalization; however, this generalized description of a ritual scene is increasingly common in most American, Canadian, and Western European cities.

Since the late 1960’s, the Indian-American community has attempted to recreate India in America through the construction of temples rivaling those of India and bringing traditional Sanskrit scholars to officiate at these temples. This mass construction of temples rapidly increased in the 1980’s with the ever burgeoning Indian diaspora. Temples now serve as centers of Sanskrit culture that support the continuation of ritual, education programs, and the teaching of traditional dance and music. In many cases, temples cater to the needs of specific regional or sectarian groups within the Indian-American community. Babb describes similar social phe­nomena in the case of Singapore:

Each (North and South) has its own internal patterns of interaction which are drawn inward by the strong pull of linguistic and cultural affinity. Religious activity naturally falls into these fixed patterns. (1997: 165)

In America, language barriers between the North and South lead to the use of English as the medium for communication. The use of English makes a joint feeling of community difficult in a ritual con­text. [18] The breakdown of the Indian community into supporting temples of a specific denomination or regional sub-group is more common in larger cities where the community is much larger. In smaller locales, greater syncretism is apparent where a temple that is predominantly either South or North Indian in architecture, rit­ual, and observances, may make amends by having a few ancillary shrines in the North or South Indian style with perhaps a ritualist trained in that tradition as well. Although regional and sectarian divisions of India are certainly much more fluid and blurred in America, regionalism is still apparent and instances of ritualists predominantly serving a specific sub-community is not uncommon.

The Performers of Puja:
The Bearers of the Tradition

The Brahmin practitioners, as the traditional Sanskrit scholars, have been the bearers and officients of these highly elaborate textu­alized Sanskrit rituals. Many of these ancient scholarly communi­ties, such as the Vaidika Smartas, Vaikhanasas, and Agamic Sivachariars to name a few, are slowly disappearing due to increased modernization and Westernization. The Sanskrit ritualist community is exclusively Brahmin males both in India and Amer­ica. Dumont describes the intricate organization within a single caste group:

The caste, unified from the outside, is divided within. More gener­ally, a particular caste is a complete group, a successive inclusion of groups of diverse orders or levels, in which different functions (pro­fession, endogamy, etc.) are attached to different levels. (1980: 34)

In the case of the Sanskrit ritualist, philosophical differences take the form of sectarianism as a Monist (Smarta) and a Dualist (Vaishnava). Philosophical distinction also serves as the root of the sub caste, which then leads to different ritual traditions and cus­toms.

Most ritualists I have met readily admit to not being ade­quately equipped to meet the various ritual needs of their increas­ingly diverse local communities in America and India. In America and modern India, a ritualist of the Vaishnava tradition solely trained in temple ritual may be called upon by a sponsor to per­form a puja in a home. These complex ritual scenarios are increas­ingly common in a society where sectarian and ritual distinctions are blurred. Temple ritualists admit that even though their families may have been traditionally employed only in the practice of tem­ple rituals, they have begun to learn and perform other rituals, such as pujas at home, reserved to other sub-groups of ritualists. According to practitioners in the West, the pathasalas (institu­tions) that dispense the Sanskrit educations in India have still not modified their curriculum to an increasingly fluid ritual structure where distinctions between sects and temple and house rituals are slowly disappearing. Gerow describes the fairly orthodox system of academic training in the Majaraja of Mysore pathasala in Karna­taka:

I should mention the division of faculties, which reflect much more evidently the traditional roots of the institution. . . .For the three faculties are each intended to form the student, typically a Brahmin, in a particular métier or function—first, that of sastri, then, that of officiating priest in a Hindu temple (that faculty is called Agamavib­haga), and then, finally, and from the angle of tradition, still the most prestigious, that wherein the Veda and its accessories are res­cued from collective oblivion and are cosigned to the memory of the next generation (Vedavibhaga). (2002: 662)

Gerow gives a fairly complete description of the educational system and structure of the pathasala system of Sanskrit and ritual education in the context of South India. Pathasalas continue to dispense ritual training of a specific tradition, such as the temple Agama tradition or Vedic tradition. Although many ritualists admit that such highly specialized sectarian and ritual training is not nec­essarily helpful in today’s society, they also fiercely defend the necessity of maintaining the ritual purity of their specific tradi­tions. As Babb (1975) argues, a specific puja reflects a physical expression of social relationships, such as a sect. Hence, the man­ner in which the puja is performed is central to the notion of iden­tity as a sect. Here is a clear example of cognitive dissonance—the ritualist make ritual amends and perform rituals that are outside of their tradition, while they fiercely defend the necessity of main­taining their own ritual purity and tradition. Ritualists admit that they find themselves in an intricate balancing act where they seek to meet the ritual needs of a community that often does not recog­nize ritual and sectarian traditions, while still maintaining the tradi­tions reserved for their own sub-group and heritage. This sentiment is captured in the fictitious Kannada novel Samskara by U.R. Ananthamurthy, where a lone group of practicing Sanskrit scholars in Karnataka State in the early 1960’s attempt to maintain the purity, relevance, and authenticity of their heritage, while keeping pace with social change in the face of extreme odds.

A Brief History of the Ritualists

Through the study of these small insular communities with unbroken traditions of maintaining various specialized rituals and scriptures for thousands of years, we are able to get a window into the past. These scholarly groups allow us to better understand an ancient tradition in transition. In the case of South India as late as the early 1960’s, Beiteille describes caste stratification through a specific community’s use of a ritualist where the Smarta and Vaishnava scholars only perform rituals within their own commu­nities and other caste groups depend on lower level Brahmin ritu­alists, such as the panchangakaran:

The position of comparative inferiority of the Panchangakarans and Archakas may be partly explained by the fact that their occupation makes them dependent for their livelihood on the services rendered to Non-Brahmins. (1965: 95)

Today in many Indian cities and certainly the case in America where increasingly class is replacing caste as a social indicator among the middle class, the same high-caste Brahmin ritualist caters to the ritual needs of all communities irregardless of caste. Although Brahmins serve the ritual needs of all groups irregardless of caste today, the priesthood of Sanskrit ritualists itself remains in the hands of the Brahmins. Beitelle describes the continuing perva­sive influence of caste:

Mobility in the caste system is a much slower and more gradual process than in the class system. The style of life of a community has a complex and pervasive character, and it takes a long time to change. (1965: 190)

The priesthood remains a separate insular social community. However, mobility within the community seems increasingly pos­sible. For instance, a relatively low-level Sivachariar temple priest now has access to perform high-level Smartha Vedic house rituals. Hence, many Sivachariars no longer identify themselves as being a distinct group from the superior Vedic Smarthas based on their increasingly similar ritual roles. Similar to past arguments of the Sanskritists Max Muller and Abe Dubois who believed that imme­diate destruction of the caste system will result in more harm than good, many practitioners believe that their already shrinking and fragmented groups will lose what little of their collective ritual heri­tage remains if they initiate ritualists outside of their respective Brahmin communities. This belief seems to be rooted in the idea of purity of the ritualist and then leading inherently to their notion of the purity of the Brahmin. Most Brahmin ritualists feel a sense of obligation and burden to maintain their ritual purity. Derrett describes the rigorous ritual purity that is required of the Brahmin:

They (Brahmin) must come before the deities whom they invoked on their clients’ behalf in the proper dress and in the state of proper physical and mental purity. Fasting, bathing, and other prepara­tions—in addition to all the magical and symbolic ceremonies which had prepared them supersubstantially, from conception onward—enabled them to commence their functions; and every step in the ritual had to be performed exactly (it was believed) as the great ones of the ancient past had (successfully) performed them. (1976: 604)

Most practitioners believe that their own credibility and authority to perform a puja derives from their practice of austerities, birth into the community of Brahmins, and their meticulous following of the rules governing the performance of the puja. The ritualist views himself as a spiritual physician since an abridged ritual where steps are improperly performed or mispronounced mantras will not yield the expected outcome, or worse, may yield a negative result.

Textualization of Ritual

In the case of textualized rituals, sectarian background and location of the ritual dictates to a significant extent the ritual to be performed. A critical distinction here is that textualization is not synonymous with consistency and uniformity. Textualization merely refers to the use of various Sanskrit texts, such as the Vedas and Puranas, and ritual manuals, including the Grhysutras and Agamas, in the performance of the ritual. As Babb (1997) notes in the case of Singapore, the mere use of the same Pan-Indian text does not immediately mean a consistency in the ritual between North and South India—various regions many chose to emphasize a different portion of the text through different ritual manipula­tions. Though the major structural components of any given textual ritual are usually the same within a given sectarian or regional group, the practitioner is free to select the actual texts employed from a vast body of scripture. Most practitioners will readily acknowledge that variances between practitioners, even those with the same background, is natural due to personal preference in selecting appropriate texts. Puja may appear to be a an extremely rigid scheme, but the individual is clearly given great autonomy and power to determine the exact nature of the ritual in terms of steps included and texts used.

Outside of the Brahmanical tradition the use of vernacular lan­guages, especially in popular rites and festivals in ritual, is more common. In fact, textualization in a vernacular language, such as Classical Tamil and Hindi, coexist parallel with the Sanskrit tradi­tion. For instance, Beitelle and Dumont (1970) both describe the rich indigenous Tamil traditions associated with the folk deity Ayanar. The Brahmanical tradition is not exclusively a Sanskrit tradition, as in the case of the Sri Vaishnava community, who read­ily give Tamil a status equal to that of Sanskrit. In Tamil Nadu, non-Brahmin priests known as Pandaram at village temples may perform the entire ritual in Tamil. Sanskrit ritualists today appear to not be extremely concerned about a loss of purity that may be incurred through a greater liberal outlook towards performing pujas for all community members.

The total reliance on Brahmin ritualists and textualized temple deities reflects a view often voiced by practitioners in America and urban India that textualization implies a pan-Indian Sanskritic component that all regional groups share. The Brahmin ritualist is a technician who is a master of scripture. Many informants in America readily admit that Brahmin scholars with a textualized Sanskrit ritual tradition have greater credibility and legitimacy in a society often composed of Western-educated professionals. Babb also links the inclusivity of a temple or deity with the community employed: “Deities with the broadest constituencies of all are invariably served by Brahmins” (1975: 187). The inclusive nature of Sanskrit ritual practiced in the West naturally leads to the total employment and reliance, then, on Brahmin ritualists. 

Though a textualized ritual does not imply the use of Sanskrit, Sanskrit appears as the major, if not sole, language of ritual in America and now even in India. M.N. Srinivas coined the term San­skritization in the 1960’s and attributes these phenomena to lower caste members trying to gain greater status through the perform­ance of Sanskrit rituals. In the case of America and in many parts of modern India, Sanskritization in ritual appears to be a trend due to the community’s reliance on the expertise of Brahmin ritualists of the Sanskrit textual tradition. Also, when multiple regional and linguistic groups come together to perform a ritual in America and increasingly in India, Sanskrit serves as the inclusive pan-Indian common denominator. Thus, regionalism is often sacrificed due to the commingling of different groups in pujas and other rituals. San­skritization is then only further reinforced by temples and other institutions that propagate the Sanskrit tradition through their emphasis on pan-Indian textualized deities. However, two poten­tial problems of this notion of Sanskritization, as Babb (1975) points out, are that the Sanskrit tradition has incorporated many components that were non-Sanskritic in origin, and that features of popular customs that do not derive from texts are many times pan-Indian in distribution.

Conclusion

When studying puja, there are basically three streams of his­tory that must be closely analyzed: textual, oral, and archeological. The textual heritage of puja is readily apparent in the Sanskrit texts that are used in the ritual ranging from literature composed within the last few decades to texts dating back 3,000 years. Texts have been redefined over the centuries and adapted to different social conditions—a text today may not have been used for the same purpose and the same ritual context of 1,500 years ago for example. The oral heritage is represented by the various communities of ritu­alists who have dedicated themselves to the preservation of this ancient cultural heritage. Often small groups of families represent an uninterrupted oral history of a certain form of puja rituals. The archeological heritage is readily apparent in the ritual implement, images, monuments, and temples dating back to classical antiquity. Here, all three historical records have been briefly touched upon in order to gain a broad understanding of this classical ritual tradition.

Puja serves to connect the time of the gods and humans for a single moment through the creation of a zone of purity. The zone of purity is a temporary state dictated by auspicious time in both spatial and cosmic contexts. The world of the gods is recreated physically in the puja—through representing and serving the gods with physical objects, the gods are brought to life.

Puja is a personal means to associate and relate to the infinite and omnipresent Brahman. Moreover, puja reflects a complex interaction of social relations that continue to change with the evo­lution of society. In the West and increasingly in India, the distinc­tions between ritualist, practitioner, and worshiper are increasingly blurred with a greater emphasis on congregational rites where all members—irrespective of caste and gender—participate in ritual chanting. The Agamas and Vedas, which have survived for over two millennia, claim that if the tradition dies and the texts disap­pear today, they will come back and be relived in the future. The ritualists hold on to the same hope: even if their own children for­get the tradition, it will come back in a future generation. The tem­ples of India and their ritual practices, unlike similar monuments of a bygone age, such as Mexico, Rome, Cambodia, Greece, or Egypt, have remained centers of living cultural activity rather than monu­ments of the past because of the resilience of ancient communities that have maintained their ritual traditions. In America, the monu­ments of the past are being recreated and become centers of living culture through the medium of ritual. No doubt there has been a world of change in the observance of puja rituals over the last few decades in terms of issues relating to caste, gender, and orthodoxy, especially in the United States and in Indian urban centers. Sanskrit ritualism must now be redefined and reanalyzed in light of the changing social context in the face of rapid change and moderniza­tion. Puja will continue to undergo changes and be redefined in light of the social situation.

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