DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0418
406 The Morning Sandhya Service.
Then follows another division of the Nyasa ceremonial
called Indriya-sparsa, or the act of touching different parts
of the body, such as the breast, eyes, ears, navel, throat, and
head, with the fingers. (Compare Manu II. 60.)
Next comes the regular Gayatrl-japa, or repeated muttering
of the Gayatri-prayer.
Before beginning this repetition, those who follow the
Tantrik system go through the process of making various
mystical figures called Mudras, twenty-four in number, by
twisting, interlacing, or intertwining the fingers and hands
together. Each of these figures, according to its name,
bears some fanciful resemblance to animals or objects of
various kinds, as, for example, to a fish, tortoise, boar, lion
(these being forms in which the god Vishnu became in-
carnate), or to a cart, noose, knot, garland; the efficacy
attributed to these peculiar intertwinings and twistings of
the hands and fingers being enormous.
The correct number of repetitions is 108, and to insure
accuracy of enumeration a rosary of 108 beads made of Tulasi
wood is generally used, the hand being carefully concealed in
a red bag (called Go-mukhl) or under a cloth.
The next division of the service is called Upasthana (or
Mitropasthana), because the worshipper abandons his sitting
posture, stands erect with his face towards the rising Sun, and
invokes that luminary under the name of Mitra. The prayer
he now repeats is Rig-veda III. 59, of which the first verse is
to the following effect:—
Mitra, raising his voice, calls men to activity.
Mitra sustains the earth and the sky.
Mitra with unwinking eye beholds all creatures.
Offer to Mitra the oblation of butter.
The use of this hymn in the morning service of every
Hindu is an interesting fact in its connection with the iden-
tification of the Indian Mitra with the Zoroastrian god
Mithra, mentioned by Herodotus, and with the same Mithra
Then follows another division of the Nyasa ceremonial
called Indriya-sparsa, or the act of touching different parts
of the body, such as the breast, eyes, ears, navel, throat, and
head, with the fingers. (Compare Manu II. 60.)
Next comes the regular Gayatrl-japa, or repeated muttering
of the Gayatri-prayer.
Before beginning this repetition, those who follow the
Tantrik system go through the process of making various
mystical figures called Mudras, twenty-four in number, by
twisting, interlacing, or intertwining the fingers and hands
together. Each of these figures, according to its name,
bears some fanciful resemblance to animals or objects of
various kinds, as, for example, to a fish, tortoise, boar, lion
(these being forms in which the god Vishnu became in-
carnate), or to a cart, noose, knot, garland; the efficacy
attributed to these peculiar intertwinings and twistings of
the hands and fingers being enormous.
The correct number of repetitions is 108, and to insure
accuracy of enumeration a rosary of 108 beads made of Tulasi
wood is generally used, the hand being carefully concealed in
a red bag (called Go-mukhl) or under a cloth.
The next division of the service is called Upasthana (or
Mitropasthana), because the worshipper abandons his sitting
posture, stands erect with his face towards the rising Sun, and
invokes that luminary under the name of Mitra. The prayer
he now repeats is Rig-veda III. 59, of which the first verse is
to the following effect:—
Mitra, raising his voice, calls men to activity.
Mitra sustains the earth and the sky.
Mitra with unwinking eye beholds all creatures.
Offer to Mitra the oblation of butter.
The use of this hymn in the morning service of every
Hindu is an interesting fact in its connection with the iden-
tification of the Indian Mitra with the Zoroastrian god
Mithra, mentioned by Herodotus, and with the same Mithra