Bathing the Deity

Abhisheka is the ritual bathing and anointing of the image or symbol of a deity, in which water, milk, curds, clarified butter, honey and other substances are poured over it in sequence, often to the accompaniment of chanted verses. It belongs to the daily and festival service of the deity in temple and home worship, an act of honour and hospitality by which the divine guest is bathed as a revered person would be, and it is performed with special elaboration on great occasions, the abhisheka of the Shiva linga with the five products of the cow, or the grand bathing of temple images at festivals. The same term names the consecratory sprinkling or anointing that installed a king in ancient India, and this royal sense carries over into the ritual: to perform abhisheka on a deity is to treat the image with the honours of a sovereign. The substances used and the accompanying liturgy vary by tradition, sect and deity, but the gesture of reverent bathing is common across Hindu worship.