from their functional use as footwear,
after death an ascetic’s padukas will
often be kept by his (or, more rarely, her)
disciples, as a sign of their guru’ssym-
bolic presence.
Padya
(“for the feet”) The third of the sixteen
traditional upacharas (“offerings”)
given to a deityas part of worship, on
the model of treating the deity as an
honored guest. In this offering, the deity
is offered water for washing the feet,
which would be a traditional act of hos-
pitality for a guest coming in from out-
side. The actual act of offering can be
performed in various ways and often
depends on the worshiper’s inclinations.
In some cases the water will simply
be presented before the deity’s image
with the understanding that the deity
has taken it, whereas in other cases
the devotee (bhakta) will physically
wash the feet of the image. In either
case, the underlying motive is to show
love for the deity and to minister to the
deity’s needs.
Pahari
One of the two influential “schools” of
Indian miniature painting, the other
being the Rajasthani. The distinctions
between schools are geographical and
thus somewhat arbitrary, since, for
example, the Basohlipaintings belong
to the Pahari school, but are stylistically
closer to those of Rajasthanthan to the
later Pahari style.
The Pahari style flourished in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in
the small kingdoms in the Shiwalik Hills
north and west of Delhi. It first appears
in the kingdom of Basohli, where the
influence of the Rajasthani school is the
clearest, and later developed in the king-
doms of Jammu, Guler, Garhwal, and
Kangra. The developed Pahari style dif-
fers from the Rajasthani in its emphasis
on more linear drawing—perhaps influ-
enced by European art—and a more
restrained use of color, both features
tending to give the paintings a more lyri-
cal feel. For further information see
W. G. Archer, Indian Painting, 1957; and
“Pahari Miniatures: A Concise History,”
in Marg, Vol. 28, No. 2, 1975.Paishacha Marriage
One of the eight ways to perform a mar-
riage recognized in the dharma litera-
ture, the treatises on religious duty.
Paishachas are a class of demons, so a
marriage named after them is already
suspect. The Paishacha marriage takes
place when a man has intercourse with a
woman who is drunk, unconscious, or
asleep. Not surprisingly, this is one of
the four reprehensible (aprashasta)
forms of marriage, and because of the
woman’s lack of conscious awareness,
this form was forbidden, even though it
was deemed a valid marriage. Here the
writers’ concern seems to have been to
give the “bride” legal status as a wife,
rather to legitimate the actions of the
“groom.” Although theoretically valid,
this form of marriage has always been
forbidden, and thus it has never been
one of the common forms of marriage.
See also marriage, eight classical forms.Paithan
City and sacred site (tirtha) on the
Godavari River in the state of
Maharashtra, about 175 miles east of
Bombay. Although of reduced impor-
tance in modern times, it has a long his-
tory as a trading city and was an
important stopping-point on the central
Indian trade route from southern India
to Ujjain. Since the sixteenth century,
Paithan has been famous as the home of
Eknath, one of the important figures in
the Varkari Panth, a religious commu-
nity centered around the worshipof the
Hindu god Vithoba at his temple at
Pandharpurin the modern state of
Maharashtra. Varkari religious practice
primarily consists of two pilgrimages, in
which all the participants arrive in
Pandharpur on the same day. Eknath
still symbolically travels to PandharpurPadya