Abstract

Scholars of the religious studies of India have long been intrigued by the seminal roles of rituals in diverse strands of the Hindu tradition. The most outstanding among them pertained to the institution of tīrthas, evident during this period, not only of the remarkable extension of the ritual format and its definitional scope but also an unprecedented proliferation in its numbers. A ritual outline very closely related to tīrtha-centric activities, featured at many prominent religious centres from the time of the Purāṇas, was collective bathing in holy rivers or water bodies on certain occasions, which gained wide popularity and appeal. Given their status, it is important to explore the raison d ̍être of such water rituals and how the ritual of holy bath heightened. For this purpose, the paper is divided into three sections: the first section explores the sacrificial ritualism in relation to the Vedic Brahmanism and its symbolic transformation over disputation of the Vedic sacrifice. The second section delves into the understanding of the symbolic importance of water in the rituals of the Hindu religion and its association with the sacred sites or tīrthas. The last section elucidates the likely factors contributing to the growing attractiveness of holy water bath in Purāṇic Hinduism which reflects the changed character and format of the genre of religious texts that began to be composed from the Purāṇic period onwards.