Hindu Temples, Rituals and Festivals: Puja to Diwali

Hindu religious life is expressed above all through ritual: daily worship (puja) at home and in temples, the "seeing" of the deity (darshan), fire offerings inherited from the Vedas, rites of passage from birth to cremation, pilgrimage to holy rivers and cities, and a calendar crowded with festivals such as Diwali, Holi and Navaratri. The Hindu temple, conceived as the dwelling place of a god and a model of the cosmos, stands at the centre of this world of practice.

The Hindu Temple: House of God and Image of the Cosmos§

Vedic religion had no temples; it worshipped at temporary fire altars. Permanent shrines for images appear in the last centuries BCE, and the earliest surviving stone temples, modest structures such as the Gupta-period temple at Deogarh (about the sixth century), date from the middle of the first millennium CE. Over the next thousand years temple building became the highest form of royal piety, producing monuments such as the rock-cut Kailasa temple at Ellora (eighth century), the temples of Khajuraho (roughly 950–1050), the Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur, completed around 1010 under the Chola king Rajaraja I, and the Sun temple of Konark. Angkor Wat in Cambodia, built in the twelfth century and dedicated to Vishnu, is the largest religious monument in the world.

Temple design follows rules set out in architectural treatises and in the Agamas, discussed in Tantra in Hinduism. The ground plan is based on a square grid identified with the body of a cosmic being (vastu-purusha). At the heart is the small, dark sanctum, the garbhagriha or "womb chamber," which houses the main image. Above it rises a tower: a curvilinear shikhara in the northern nagara style, or a stepped pyramidal vimana in the southern dravida style, where great gateway towers (gopurams), like those of Madurai's Minakshi temple, often overshadow the sanctum itself. Halls (mandapas) for assembly, music and dance lead towards the sanctum, and the whole is understood as a cosmic mountain and a path from the outer world to the divine centre.

Temple Life and Society§

A major temple is a community of priests, musicians, cooks, gardeners and administrators, and historically it was a landowner, a bank and a patron of the arts. Priesthood is generally hereditary. For centuries many temples excluded groups regarded as untouchable; campaigns such as the Vaikom Satyagraha of 1924–25 in Kerala and the Travancore Temple Entry Proclamation of 1936 began to open them, and Indian law now forbids excluding worshippers on grounds of caste. The hereditary temple dancers known as devadasis, historically important in temple ritual and in the development of classical dance, were the subject of reform campaigns, and the institution was abolished by law in Madras Presidency in 1947.

Puja and Darshan: How Hindus Worship§

Puja is the central act of Hindu worship, performed daily in temples and in most Hindu homes, where a shrine may be a whole room or a small shelf. The deity, present in a consecrated image or picture, is honoured as an exalted guest: invited, offered a seat, water to wash the feet and mouth, a bath, clothes and ornaments, sandal paste, flowers, incense, a lamp and food, and then praised and bid farewell. A full formal puja comprises sixteen such services (shodashopachara). Its climax is often arati, the waving of a lamp before the deity accompanied by bells and song, after which worshippers pass their hands over the flame and touch their eyes. Food offered to the deity is returned as prasada, sanctified grace.

In the temple, worship centres on darshan, "seeing." Devotees come to see the deity, and to be seen by it, in the moment when the curtain of the sanctum opens. They walk clockwise around the shrine (pradakshina), ring the temple bell, make offerings of coconuts, flowers and sweets through the priest and receive the sacred ash or vermilion mark. Larger temples follow a daily cycle in which the deity is woken, bathed, dressed, fed and put to bed, and festival images are taken out in procession on great wooden chariots. For the theology of the image, see Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

Fire Rites, Mantras and Daily Observances§

The Vedic fire sacrifice survives in modified forms. The homa or havan, an offering of ghee and grains into a consecrated fire with Vedic mantras, accompanies weddings, house-warmings and many temple festivals. A small number of Brahmin families maintain the daily fire offering (agnihotra), and rare performances of the great Vedic rites still take place; a twelve-day agnicayana held in Kerala in 1975 was documented in detail by the scholar Frits Staal. These traditions are described in The Vedas and Upanishads.

Everyday observance includes the twilight worship (sandhya) of twice-born men, with the Gayatri mantra; the repetition of divine names on a rosary (japa); fasts and vows (vratas) undertaken, especially by women, for the welfare of family members; the drawing of auspicious designs (rangoli or kolam) at the threshold; and the care of the sacred tulsi plant. Auspicious times for rites are chosen with the help of the almanac (panchanga) and astrologers, as explained in Vedic Astrology; readers can explore the signs on the site's Vedic horoscope pages.

The Samskaras: Hindu Rites of Passage§

The samskaras, "perfecting" rites, mark the stages of life. Classical lists number sixteen, beginning with rites for conception and pregnancy. Rites for children include naming (namakarana), first feeding with solid food, and the first cutting of the hair. The sacred-thread initiation (upanayana) traditionally admitted boys of the three upper classes to Vedic study, marking a "second birth"; it remains important in many Brahmin families.

Marriage (vivaha) is the central samskara for most Hindus. Customs vary enormously by region and community, but the core rite is performed before a sacred fire; the couple circle it, and in many traditions take seven steps together (saptapadi), after which the marriage is complete. The final samskara is cremation (antyeshti). The body is burned, ideally on the bank of a holy river; the ashes are later immersed, often in the Ganga, and a series of rites over the following days, and annual shraddha offerings thereafter, nourish the deceased on the journey to the world of the ancestors. Varanasi is considered the most auspicious place to die and be cremated, since Shiva is believed to grant liberation to those who die there. See Dharma, Karma, Samsara and Moksha for the beliefs behind these rites.

Pilgrimage and the Sacred Geography of India§

A pilgrimage place is a tirtha, a "crossing place" or ford, where the boundary between the human and divine worlds is thin. India is mapped by networks of such places: the seven holy cities (Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar, Varanasi, Kanchipuram, Ujjain and Dwarka), the four abodes (char dham) at the cardinal points (Badrinath, Puri, Rameswaram and Dwarka), the twelve lingas of light of Shiva and the seats of the Goddess. Pilgrims bathe in rivers, especially the Ganga, Yamuna and Godavari, to wash away sins, and many travel on foot.

The Kumbh Mela, held in rotation at Prayagraj (Allahabad), Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik according to the positions of Jupiter, the sun and moon, draws ascetics and lay pilgrims to bathe at auspicious moments. Official estimates for the largest gatherings at Prayagraj run to tens of millions of bathers on the main days, and UNESCO recognised the Kumbh Mela as intangible cultural heritage in 2017.

The Great Hindu Festivals§

Hindu festivals follow a lunisolar calendar, so their dates shift from year to year in the Western calendar, and many are regional.

• Diwali (Deepavali), the festival of lights in October or November, celebrates Rama's return to Ayodhya, Krishna's victory over the demon Naraka and the worship of Lakshmi, with lamps, fireworks, sweets and new accounts for merchants.
• Holi, in spring, is famous for its bonfire recalling the burning of the demoness Holika and for the joyful throwing of coloured powders associated with Krishna.
• Navaratri and Durga Puja, in autumn, honour the Goddess for nine nights and culminate in Dussehra, the victory of good over evil; see Shaktism.
• Ganesh Chaturthi honours Ganesha with public images, a festival that Bal Gangadhar Tilak promoted as a public celebration in Maharashtra from 1893.
• Maha Shivaratri, Janmashtami (Krishna's birthday) and Rama Navami are the great days of Shiva, Krishna and Rama.
• Solar and harvest festivals include Makar Sankranti and Pongal in January, Onam in Kerala and Chhath, the sun worship of Bihar.

Frequently asked questions§

What is the difference between puja and darshan?§

Puja is the act of worship in which offerings are made to a deity, while darshan is the act of seeing and being seen by the deity in its image. A temple visit usually includes both, and darshan is often regarded as its spiritual heart.

What is the most important Hindu festival?§

Diwali is the most widely celebrated Hindu festival across India and the diaspora. Regionally, other festivals may be more important, such as Durga Puja in Bengal, Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra, Pongal in Tamil Nadu and Onam in Kerala.

Why do Hindus walk clockwise around temples?§

Circumambulation (pradakshina) keeps the deity on the worshipper's right, the auspicious side, and expresses reverence by placing the deity at the centre of one's movement. The practice also appears in Buddhism and Jainism.

Sources and further reading§

• Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India — Diana L. Eck, 1981
• Banaras: City of Light — Diana L. Eck, 1982
• India: A Sacred Geography — Diana L. Eck, 2012
• The Hindu Temple — Stella Kramrisch, 1946
• The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms — George Michell, 1977
• Hindu Saṃskāras — Raj Bali Pandey, 1949
• Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar — Frits Staal, 1983