Note 20 — B (continued 2)

Some Bairāgis are celibates, and others married. They are supposed to be celibates, but, as Dr. T. N. Bhattacharjee observes,20 the “monks of this order have generally a large number of nuns attached to their convents, with whom they openly live as man and wife.” The Bairāgis are very particular about the worship of the sālagrāma stone, and will not partake of food without worshipping it. When so doing, they cover their head with a piece of cloth (Rām nām ka safa), on which the name Rāma is printed in Dēvanāgiri characters. Their face and shoulders are stamped, by means of brass stamps, with the word Rāma in similar characters. For the purpose of meditation, the Bairāgi squats on the ground, sometimes with a deer or tiger skin beneath him, and rests his hands on the cross-piece of his yōga-dandam, or bent stick. A pair of tongs is stuck in the ground on his right side, and sometimes fire is kept near it. It is noted by Mr. J. C. Oman21 that “a most elaborate ritual has been laid down for the guidance of Bairāgis in the daily routine of the indispensable business and duties of life, prescribing in minute detail how, for example, the ascetic should wash, bathe, sit down, perform pranayam (stoppage or regulation of respiration), purify his body, purge his mind, meditate on Vishnu, repeat the Gāyatri (hymn) as composed for the special use of members of the sect, worship Rāma, Sita, Lakshman, Bharata, and Satringah, together with Rāma’s bows and arrows, and, lastly, the monkey god Hanumān.”