Prof. Dr. Lawrence A. Babb
Living ascetics are objects of worship to lay Svetambar Jains. Lay Jains greet ascetics formally with a rite of obeisance known as guru vandan; it consists of bowing in coordination with the recitation of a prescribed formula (see Cort 1989: 328). This is a form of worship. Ascetics are also overtly worshiped in a small rite known as guru puja. In the Tapa Gacch this is based on a transaction involving a yellow powder called vasksep, a mixture of sandalwood powder and saffron (ibid.: 331-33). The layperson puts a small amount of it on the ascetic's big toe; the ascetic then sprinkles the same type of powder on the back of the bowing worshiper's head (Figure 4). The vasksep -exchanging pattern appeared to me to be less strong among Khartar Gacch Jains in Jaipur. As I have seen it in Jaipur, the worshiper touches the ascetic's feet (if they are of the same sex) while the powder is bestowed as a blessing on the worshiper's head or shoulders. I have never seen the powder being used among the Sthanakvasis and Terapanthis.
Vasksep powder is an important substance among Svetambar Jains. This yellow powder, in effect a material vehicle for a nonmaterial power, is said to have been sprinkled by Lord Mahavir himself on the heads of the eleven gandhar 's to signify their successful assimilation of his teachings. Indra supposedly held the platter from which it came. The powder is also associated with miraculous occurrences. I have heard various stories about miraculous rains of vasksep in temples; in one case (in Ahmedabad) it was interpreted as a message from a recently deceased nun who had achieved rebirth in the first heaven. It is also used in the empowerment of images by officiating ascetics. In other South Asian traditions, liquids are frequently used in similar contexts. Jains use powder, I believe, because of its dryness; it can be handled by ascetics without fear of harming the microbes that swarm in liquids.
There is nothing distinctively Jain about the worship of ascetics. It is, in fact, a widespread South Asian pattern. There is, however, one very significant difference between the veneration of living ascetics among Svetambar Jains and the worship of holy persons in most Hindu traditions. Relations between worshipers and holy persons in non-Jain traditions are typically rich in two-way transactions.[1] The guru is given food, but then the remnants of his or her meal are consumed by devotees as a kind of blessing. Such returned food is known as prasad, which is seen as divine grace in a substantial, consumable form. The same basic pattern is fundamental to image worship in many (though as we shall see, not all) Hindu traditions. However, the remnants of ascetics' meals are never returned to donors as blessings among Svetambar Jains.[2] This is part of a wider pattern. We have already learned that offerings are not returned to donors in the five-kalyanak puja with which this chapter began. In the next chapter we shall see that the nonreturn of offerings is a general characteristic of Svetambar image-worship. This is a matter of great importance having centrally to do with Jain conceptions of relations between human beings and the sacred.
Figure 4.
Receiving a blessing from a monk. A Tapa Gacch monk places
vasksep on the head of a layman in Ahmedabad.
