Temple Services
Pushpaka Brahmins were temple employees but they were not aristocratic like the Nampoothiris. In the past they resided within the temples in their quarters and were sustained by the temple. They were simple people who lived at the benevolence of the temple. The major temple services of Pushpakas are:
- Teaching of non-Vedic scriptures such as Ayurveda (medicine), Sanskrit, Nyaaya (logic), and sacred texts such as Mahabharatam, Ramayanam in Pathasalas associated with temples and their own houses known as Mathas
- Making flower-garlands for decorating the vigraha and the temple (Kazhakam | കഴകം)
- Cleaning the inner-temple
- Lighting of oil lamps in the tample
- Holding the traditional Hindu-lamps in various temple ceremonies
- Distribution of sacred theertham, chandanam, prasadam etc. to the devotees
- Priestly duties to lower castes
Read more about this topic: Pushpaka Brahmin
Famous quotes containing the words temple and/or services:
“The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“Men will say that in supporting their wives, in furnishing them with houses and food and clothes, they are giving the women as much money as they could ever hope to earn by any other profession. I grant it; but between the independent wage-earner and the one who is given his keep for his services is the difference between the free-born and the chattel.”
—Elizabeth M. Gilmer (1861–1951)