Kamandalu ( Skt. कमण्डलु , kamaṇḍalu IAST ) or Kamandal or Kamandalam is an elongated vessel for water used in Hinduism and Buddhism .
There are many ways to make kamandalu: from dried pumpkin , coconut shell , metal or wood from kamandalu tree ( Ficus Infectoria ), from clay, usually with a pen and sometimes with a neck.
Hindu ascetics and yogis often use scandal to store drinking water. Water in such a vessel, which ascetics constantly carry with them, symbolizes a simple and restrained life. That is why kamandalu is a symbol of asceticism in Hinduism [1] . According to the kalpa-sutras , the ancient Indian snataks were ordered to cleanse the body - through the achamana and with the help of kamandalu [2] . The text of the Garuda Purana describes the offering of kamandalu during sraddha so that the deceased could have a plentiful drink in the afterlife.
Kamandalu is also used by Jaina monks and is present on images of some bodhisattvas .
Kamandalu in the mythology of Hinduism
Kamandalu is often found in Hindu iconography in the hands of deities associated with asceticism ( Shiva , Brahma ) or water ( Varuna , Ganga , Sarasvati ). Sometimes the deities Agni and Brihaspati are portrayed together with this vessel. The Devi Mahatmya describes how the goddess Brahmani defeated the demons by spraying them with sacred water from kamandalu.
In the Bhagavata Purana , King Satyavrata put Matsyu , found in the river, in his kamandala to protect him from larger fish. The Mahabharata says that Dhanvantari brought amrita in this vessel when he left the Milky Ocean .
According to legend, the Ganges and the mystical Saraswati flow from the Brahma kamandala [3] . So, one of the legends says that Brahma, having washed the thumb of Vamana , collected all the water in the kamandala, where it turned into the Ganga. According to another rishi legend, Agastya once caught the Kaveri River in his kamandala when she rejected his wedding proposal. The confinement of the river caused great famine in the region, and Kaveri fled, cursed by the sage. She was able to clear this curse only in the place of the Darsha Pushkarini. It is sometimes said that the god Ganesha in anger overturned the vessel of Agastya and thereby liberated Kaveri.
Notes
- ↑ Central Asia in antiquity and the Middle Ages (History and culture). - M., 1977 .-- S. 90.
- ↑ Impostors A.M. - Book of the sage Yajnavalkya. - M.: East. lit., 1994 .-- S. 121.
- ↑ Darian, Steven G. - The Ganges in Myth and History. - Delhi, 2001 .-- P. 60.