The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.273

v2.c17.s1.273

Opinion differs greatly as to the time when the images are renewed. Some say that the renewal takes place every twelve years; others make the interval twenty-seven years; others extend it to fifty or a hundred years. A common idea is that they are renewed whenever worn out or decayed. This, however, cannot be; for heavy logs of the hard *nim* wood of which they are made cannot suffer any decay in a short period and had decay been the only cause for renewal the interval must have been reckoned by centuries. The fact is, the renewal is regulated partly by astrological calculations and partly by local prejudices. The time best adapted is when two new-moons occur in the month of Āṣāḍa, or, in other words, when that month becomes an intercallary one; this happens after very irregular intervals, ranging from seven to thirty years, and consequently the renewal is not effected at any fixed time. Moreover, the belief is that the Rājā in whose reign a renewal takes place dies soon after and consequently the renewal is often replaced by a thorough scraping and painting (Sringaphiṭā). When the renewal has been effected the old figures are deprieved of something very holy and secret which is contained in them and then buried at midnight in the north-west corner of the outer enclosure, the sacred something being introduced into the middle of the new figures. A great mystery is made about the article transferred. Some say it is a fragment of the old image; others that it is a bit of the original wood that came floating on the sea; others that it is a piece of one of the bones of Kṛṣṇa. Babu Brajakishore Ghose is very circumstantial in his description; he says ‘a boy from a Puttus family is selected to take out from the breast of the old idol a small box containing quicksilver, said to be the spirit, which he conveys inside the new. The boy who does this, is always removed from the world before the end of the year⁶²’. This statement, however, is not more reliable than the others. The fact is, the object is the mystery of mysteries in Orissa and the chief priests who alone know what it is, will not disclose it to the profane vulgar. When hard-pressed they say something or other to escape the importunity of an influential man, but obviously not the truth, nor the same story to all. What the article truly is I could not ascertain; but that it is a relic—and that a Buddhist one—I have no reason to doubt. Apart from this renewal of the images at long intervals, the rule is to renew their painting every year. This takes place immediately after the Bathing Festival, and fifteen days are devoted to it, that being the interval between the Bathing and the Car Festival. On such occasion only the old painting is scraped off, but not the ground-work formed of birch bark, pasted in layers on the wooden statues, nor the body colour put thereon.