The Development of Hindu Iconography c9.3

c9.3

¹ Water cannot be poured on the clay image with its coating of paint and other tinsel ornaments without damaging the whole object of worship. In southern India, substitute images, known as *snapanaberas* (i.e., images meant for bathing), are made, usually of bronze, and regularly bathed in place of the principal image in the sanctum. But in the case of the Śiva-liṅgas, no such intermediary is usually needed, for they are not generally coated with daubs of paint and decorated with ornaments. They are, only occasionally (once at night), endowed with various ornaments and garlands (*śṛṅgāraveśa*), and this is done long after the bathing is over. Sometimes, gold leaves in the shape of a crescent (*śaśāṅka*), three eyes or the third eye (*trinetra*), etc., are permanently inset into the *pūjābhāga* of the Liṅga.