1883.] Rajendralala Mitra —On the Temples of Deoghar. 175 
The ritual of worship is simple enough. The mantras are few, and 
the offerings limited. Pouring of water on the lingam, smearing it with 
sandal-paste, and the offering of flowers and a few grains of rice constitute 
the worship. This is followed by the offering of money in silver or gold, 
no copper being allowed to be brought in contact with the divinity. 
Rich people offer horses, cattle, palkis, gold ornaments and other valua¬ 
bles, and sometimes rent-free land in support of the daily worship, the title- 
deed in such cases being ordinarily a bel leaf on which the donation is written, 
and the leaf is swept out in the evening. This deed, however, is more 
faithfully respected than many muniments on parchment. There is 
nothing here like the consecration of enormous quantities of dressed 
food and sweetmeats which obtains at Bhuvanes'vara, Puri, and else¬ 
where. The god delights in water, bel leaves, sandal and flowers, and 
they are all that are necessary for his worship. He is, however, very 
particular about the quality of the leaves and the water. The former 
has to be brought from the Trikuta Hill. For ordinary use the water of 
the sacred well, excavated by Ravana, is held sufficient ; but water from the 
sources of the Ganges on the Himalaya near Badrinath, Sanskrit Badari- 
natha, or from the Manasarovar lake in Tibet, is highly prized, and thou¬ 
sands of pilgrims, mostly hermits, bring it from those distant places. A 
great quantity is also brought from the Ganges near the Jangira rock.* 
Adverting to it, Mr. Montgomery Martin says, “ but the great emolument 
of the priests arises from about 50,000 pilgrims who at various times 
come to carry away a load of water which they intend to pour on 
* General Cunningham derives the name from that of a saint, and not from 
that of the Emperor Jahangir as some do. He says, “ Here the course of the 
river is changed hy two rocky hills; one called Jangira, standing in the middle 
of the water, and the other called Bais-karan forming a bluff headland at the 
end of the stream. The former derives its name from Jahnu Rishi, who had 
established his cell or A'srarn in a cleft of the rocks. Hence the rock itself was 
called Jdhnavi griha, or “ Jahnu's house,” which was gradually shortened to Jahn- 
gira, just as Raja griha has now become Rdjgir'’ (Archaeological Survey Reports, 
XIY, p. 20.) This is a mere guess, and on the face of it not tenable. If the meaning 
be “ Jahnu’s house,” the compound should he Jahnu-griha, which would correspond 
with Raja-griha, the first member of which is a noun. If the derivative form be 
accepted, the term should be Jdhnava griha, the neuter noun griha not admitting 
of a feminine adjective like J dhnavi to qualify it, nor could the name of the saint he 
feminine. If the term he taken as a derivative feminine noun, the meaning would 
be the house of the river Ganges, and we would come to the absurdity of calling the 
rock the house of the river. If the word be spelt with a short final i in the derivative 
form, we create our giant vi with the object of knocking it down immediately after 
without any object, and that against the ordinary rules of Sanskrit elision. The name 
originally was Jahnugiri or “ the rock of Jahnu.” Both griha and giri would change 
into gir in the vernacular without any difficulty, and the context can alone determine 
the original term.- 
