Items Used in Ritual and Worship

Interview with shopkeepers
near the sangam, Allahabad

I live here at the sangam. I belong to the Nishad caste. We are boat people. We are also called kevats.

We use chandan to mark our foreheads and also in temples. It comes from the sandalwood tree. Pilgrims as well as holy men have their foreheads marked with it. The chandan comes in the form of a lump. You take the rodi and make a mark. If a person is poor and he doesn’t have this, he will mark his forehead with kevad. But if God has given him more, then this is a rodi of chandan, and he will use this to mark his forehead.

This colored powder [red or orange] is for putting a mark in the part of a woman’s hair to indicate that she is married. It is used only by Hindu women. The difference between red and orange is a matter of taste or style. The orange is also considered as the special color of Hanuman. The orange is used in temples, but the red is not. The red is used only for the marking of married women’s hair. But the orange is used also for that, as well as for pujas.

The colorfulness represents joy or celebration, whereas only a widow would wear white, the color of mourning.

There are 16 signs of the married woman in Hinduism. One is the mark on the forehead. Among the other 15 signs are a toe ring, anklet, bangles, a sari, blouse, a piece of jewelry in the nose, ear rings, and a necklace. If a girl is unmarried, she will not have a toe ring, a mark on her forehead, or a mark in her hair. But she can wear the bangles.

This is a form of prasad [shopkeepers point to white sugar balls sold in plastic bags]. These are offerings made to the gods, used by pilgrims. This is bought by people from all over the country who come here. It is considered very holy prasad, because it belongs to the sangam here, to prayagraj. A small amount of the prasad is placed before the idol, and the remainder is distributed among worshippers to be eaten.

These [strings of orange and yellow cotton strands, similar to a mop-head] are tied to the wrist or around the neck of devotees as they sit and listen to the telling of the myth of a deity named Shri Satyanarayan. While the story is being told, which takes a whole day to tell, the listeners have to fast.

[The story, in brief, as told by Sanjay, a high school student:] The story of Satyanarayan is historical. The basic idea in the story is that someone went to another person and made a special request for his life, and that person made the request come true. The one who made the request worships the grantor of the request. Satyanarayan is a devta. There is no idol of this god. He is God, up in the sky. I cannot tell you the story, only a pandit can. [“But we want to hear your idea.”] Oh no, we all have the same idea. We think exactly alike. We understand the story, but we are not able to tell it. If I tell you the story, I’ll become a pandit and I’m not supposed to do that. Out of respect for my religion, I will not do something that I’m not supposed to do — even though it wouldn’t be a sin.

In the Hindu religion, the devtas have made four caste groupings: the Brahmin, the Kshatriyas, the Vaisyas, and the Shudras.

[The shopkeepers point out shiny gold threads with pink cotton balls on either end.] They are worn on the wrist or the neck of a devotee. The benefit one gets from it is raksha. In terms of wearing a thread on your wrist or neck, it is considered more auspicious to wear the kalai dhaga. They are more favored by the religious leaders than the chamki dhaga.