History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.271

v7.c89.271

A few remarks from other works may be added here. The Yoga-yātrā (chap. VII. 13–14) lays down¹²⁹² that in the ceremonial bath clay should be collected from a mountain top, ant-hill, a river mouth, the two banks of a river, the foot of the Indra figure (in the Indradhvaja festival), (clay) dug up by the tusk of an elephant and by a bull's horn, (clay) from the royal palace-door and from the door of the house of a dancing girl (patronized by the king) and the king's head should be purified by rubbing on it the clay from a mountain top, his ears with clay from an ant-hill, his sides with clay from the two banks of a river and from its confluence with the sea, his neck with clay from the foot of the Indra figure, his arms with earth on the tip of the elephant's tusk and the bull's horns, his chest with earth from the door of the palace and his waist with clay from a royal courtezan's door. It will be noticed that there is a suggestive symbolism in all this. The king is to hold his head high and to attain eminence, therefore his head is to be rubbed with clay from a mountain peak.