The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.334

v2.c17.s1.334

11. *Śayana Ekādaśī.* This takes place on the eleventh of the waxing moon in the month of Āṣāḍha. It is obviously an astronomical festival connected with the summer-solstice ; but in local legends it marks the day when Viṣṇu falls into his four months’ slumber and is identically the same ceremony which has been described on page [ 79 ] except that it begins three days earlier, i. e., on the eleventh instead of the fourteenth, and the images put to bed are, insted of Śiva and Pārvatī, the two brothers and sister, Jagannātha, Balarāma and Subhadrā, represented by small effigies in gold and silver. The place selected is a corner of the great temple. There, at midnight, on a bedstead properly furnished, the effigies are placed with due ceremony and invocations and allowed to sleep for four months.