Hinduism is known to be the oldest religion in the world and it encompasses broad range of religious philosophies, cosmology, recognizable rituals, visits to important pilgrimage shrines and shared textual resources. As per the widely accepted perception, Hinduism is a religion which comprises of about 33 crore deities owing to the diverse cultures, traditions, mythological beliefs, etc accepted across the 29 states and 7 union territories of India.
Abhishekam is basically a ritual of presenting the God and Goddesses with panchamrutam, which is a mixture of milk, clarified butter, curd, honey and sugar / sugar-cane, juice. It is a way of offering or bathing the idol with such rich ingredients that are sign of purity. Cow is a sacred Hindu animal that is said to present all the 33 crore God and Goddesses. Hindus believe in worshiping the cow and therefore, the main ingredients of this panchamrutam are derived from cow.
In case when a temple is being made, the idol of
the God or Goddess receives it final shape on an auspicious day as per the
Hindu calendar and then prana prathishtapana takes place. The priests place
Navrathnas under the seating of the idol and after performing several homa and
chanting several mantras and they place the idol inside the garbha guddi.
Till the next 48 days, the homa is regularly conducted and owing to the sacred fire, the garbha guddi becomes extremely hot. In order to cool down the temperature of the temple and to purify the whole ambience, the abhishekam is performed. Devotees come in large numbers to watch the ritual being performed and to receive the prasadam in the form of thirtham or panchamrutam.
