Agni Purāṇa
68 - after Mode of taking out a procession and celebration of festivals fixing the new image:
The Lord said:
1. Ishall describe the celebration of festival after the image has been installed. Itshall be for a night, or three or five nights.
2-3. Without the festival the installation would become fruitless. The festival for the deityshould be celebrated when the sun enters the solstitial or the equinoctial points in the bedchamber or garden or it may be done in favour of the person at whose instance the ceremony is performed with the sowing of auspicious seeds and the notes of sacred music.
4-5. An earthen vessel, a small water pot or an embankment are suitable for the sowing of seeds. Grains of barley, uncultivated rice, sesamum, green gram, wheat, white mustard, horsegram, and black gramshould be winnowed, washed and sown. Offeringsshould be made in the east and other directions. Lighted lampsshould be carried round the edifice in the night.
6. (Offeringshould be made) to Indra, Kumuda and other deities and spirits. They visit the place assumingshapes of men.
7. (One who carries such lamps) certainly gets the merit of (doing) asvamedha (horse sacrifice) for every step he places. "The priestshould submit to the lord (as follows) after his return.
8. "O Lord! best among the Gods! you have to be taken in a procession tomorrow. By all means you deserve to permit us O Lord! to commence the same.
9. Having informed the lord in this way the festivitiesshould be undertaken. The platformshould be decorated with youngshoots of plants and small water-jar.
10-11. Four pillars (should be erected). The imageshould be placed in a svastika (figure) (drawn) in their midst. Or desired objectsshould be painted and placed there and the act of making the deity present in the imageshould be done with the vaishņava mantra. (The image)should be anointed with ghee with (the recitation of) the principal (mantra). Or the wise manshould arrange an incessant flow of ghee over the image the whole night.
12. Havingshown the mirror, thereshould be the waving of light, auspicious singing and instrumental music, fanning, worship, and present of light. The deityshould be worshipped with incense and flowers.
13. Turmeric, green-gram, saffron and white powdersshould be put on the head of image. But when ghee (is placed over the head) it gets the merit of all sacred places for the devotecs.
14. Having bathed and worshipped the image that is placed in the car for being taken around, the officers of the kingshould take it to the river-side accompanied by music, umbrella and other things.
15. A platformshould be got ready at a distance of a yojana (eight or nine miles) before the river. The imageshould be brought down from the car and placed on the platform.
16. Gruelshould be prepared and sweet gruelshould be offered as oblation. The sacred waters of the sacred spots)should be invoked for their presence with (the recitation of) vedic mantras symbolising the waters.
17. The imageshould again be worshipped with the principal oblations uttering the mantra apo hi stha1. The imageshould again be carried to the waters and the aghamarshaņ2 hymn repeated.
1. RV.10.9.1a.
2. RV.10.190-plant ca satyath cabhidhat
18. (The priest)should bathe with the assembly of brahmins and then the imageshould be lifted and placed on the platform. Having worshipped it there that day itshould then be taken to the temple. The priestshould worship it as in the fire which gets him enjoyment and liberation.
Summary of chapter 68 of the Agni Purāṇa is as follows:
The sixty-eighth chapter describes the ritual procedures for the annual yātrā — the festival during which the deity is taken out of the temple in procession through the surrounding town or to a sacred water body. The aṅkura-ropana (seed sprouting) that begins the festival cycle, the decoration of the utsava-mūrti (processional image), the assembly of musicians and dancers, and the route of the procession are specified. The bathing of the deity in the river or tank (tīrtha-snāna) as the culmination of the procession — symbolizing the deity's cosmic bath — is described with the mantras and the substances used. The merit of accompanying the deity's procession — even for a single step — is declared to equal the merit of a single step in the aśvamedha (horse sacrifice), so that the entire procession route is a chain of sacrificial merits accruing to every participant.
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