Consecrating a Temple

Kumbhabhishekam is the consecration of a Hindu temple, the elaborate rite by which a newly built or newly renovated temple, and above all its central image, is sanctified and the deity is invoked to take up residence in it. Over a period of days priests perform fire offerings and recitations to charge sacred pots (kumbha) of water with divine power, and on the culminating day this consecrated water is poured over the temple's crowning finials and the main image, an act understood to infuse the structure and the image with the living presence of the deity and to bring the temple fully into worship.

The ceremony is repeated periodically, traditionally about every twelve years, to renew the temple's sanctity, and a major kumbhabhishekam can draw large crowds and considerable expense. It represents the point at which stone and metal become, in the understanding of the tradition, a true dwelling of the divine, fit to receive the daily service of worship.