Note 111 — Volume II. (continued 2)

Bidua.—A functional division of Brâhmans, the consecrator of images and idols, wells, tanks, and mango orchards. “His name seems a corruption of Vidya, an ancient synonym for Veda. The idol intended for consecration undergoes various forms of ablution: first in water from some sacred river, then in panchamrita or ‘five drinks of immortality’—milk, cream, melted butter, honey, and sugar dissolved in holy water. No one is allowed to bathe in a tank, drink water from a well, or eat the fruit of an orchard until the above liquids have been thrown into them. Brâhmans are also fed, and the homa sacrifice performed. At such times seven places are assigned,—(a) for the navagraha, the nine planets including the sun and moon; (b) the asterisms (nakshatra); (c) the seven saints (Sapta Rishi); (d) the three hundred and thirty millions of deities of the Hindu pantheon; (e) the ancestral ghosts (pitri); (f) the deities of the quarters (dikpati, dikpâla); (g) the sacred rivers of India and of the celestial firmament.”111