Avinash Rampersaud Fall 2017 Bard Graduate Center Object Study Paper

Title: The Ceremonial Bell In Guyanese Hinduism: Usage and Function within Prayers and Devotional Worship

By: Avinash Rampersaud

Advisor: Dr. Urmila Mohan

Bard Graduate Center Object Study Paper, Fall 2017

December 12, 2017

Avinash Rampersaud                                                                                          December 12, 2017

Bard Graduate Center Object Study Paper, Fall 2017

To continue  my research from the summer about the Om symbol and Hindu culture, I chose a bell from my personal collection to study within the context of Guyanese Hinduism. The Guyanese Hindus come from mainly Northern India, from Uttar Pradesh and surrounding areas, with some from Southern India, Madras as an example. This research paper will also help to inform the more elaborate and perhaps unknown uses and functions of the bell (ghanta in Hindi) as it is used in Guyanese Hinduism.

The bell is significant because it has a wide variety of uses in Hinduism and has many purposes. The bell has played a central role in Hinduism, from formal prayers at temples called mandirs, to everyday worship at the home altar. However, the topic of Hinduism applies to a great number of people and cultures around the world. In order to do justice to the study of bells, I will study the broad sense and narrow down the context of my study to Guyanese Hinduism, using my personal experience. In the context of Guyanese Hinduism specifically, the bell plays a part in the devotional worship of the deities. In Guyanese Hindu temples, bells are rung during prayers and the reading of a Vedic hymn (mantra). Bells are also kept in personal altars at home and used in daily prayers.

The bell that I chose to study was purchased from a West Indian store on Liberty Avenue in Queens, NY that sells religious articles and devotional worship items. The bell is made of brass, which is a compound of copper and zinc. There is a clapper of the same material descending from the handle of the bell inside the cone. The entire bell is polished and has indentations along the outside for design and inside from its continuous usage. The inside of the cone is blackened from the clapper striking that area repeatedly, showing the actual color of the bell. The maker is from Guyana, as that is where the store imports most of its products. When the bell is rung, the sound emitted is a high pitched ring.

In Hinduism, the bell is used to cleanse the negative vibrations from the area to bring in divine vibrations during worship. “According to Agama-Shastra [23] which is the text for temple design and rituals, ringing of bells in temples and in other Hindu worship spaces during rituals is to ward off evil spirits.…the bell is rung to invite the sacred vibrations and to drive away the evil vibrations.” (Prasad, 145). This is referring to sound within a general Hindu temple, not to a specific place. The sound of the bell is what is used to “invite the sacred vibrations” into temples and other spaces, showing that the bell plays a role in the formal prayers in Hinduism.

However, in Guyanese Hinduism, there is more of an emphasis on devotional worship, often referred to as jandhi (meaning flag in Sanskrit) or puja by Guyanese Hindus, which can be done in an informal way, meaning at the home altar, as well as at a temple (called mandir by Guyanese Hindus). The bell is used to help clear the mind of any thoughts and help to focus the mind on the deity that they are praying to. During puja, or prayers, the bell is rung during the recitation of mantras, or the invocation of a deity. “Here, chanting was important, not because of purifying vibrations, but because the mahamantra was a way to express ‘sincere desire’ and call upon Krishna to engage the devotee in service.” (Mohan, 200). This quote refers to devotion as bhakti among the Hare Krishnas, but is similar to what is happening when the bell is rung while the mantra is recited. The mantra is used to call upon the deity while the bell clears the minds of the people and the area to make room for the deity.

It is believed by Guyanese Hindus that the devotion of the person to the god combined with the sound of the bell enables the spirit of the god to enter the body of the devotee, or a person who devotes themselves to one deity. If a devotee prays to their deity while the mantra for that deity is being played and a bell is being rung, the devotee will begin to “play” the spirit of the deity. Playing involves the spirit of the deity inhabiting the body of their devotee, usually to relay a message or just because the person has been affected by the deity in some way.

“Everything that is not-God has been expurgated from the body, so that it now becomes a dwelling place or receptacle for the divine…As a result of this mutual transformation both the worshipper and the deity come to occupy and inhabit a common liminal ritual space and time. The puja in this sense becomes the sacred nexus where God and the devotee meet…” (Singh, 310).

As a member of the Guyanese Hindu community, I have observed “playing” in a temple while the mantra of the deity was being recited and the bell was rung. The spirit of the deity enters the body of the devotee, causing the body to react and sway back and forth or walk up and down. Depending on the deity who enters the devotee, the devotee may adopt the posture of Shiva, Durga, Ganesh, etc. This may indicate that, when the devotee is playing, the spirit of the deity enters the body of the devotee only when their mind is centered on that particular deity. According to members of the community, the sound of the bell is said to be able clear the mind of the devotee of any distractions. The bell is rung in order to help the devotee center their mind on the deity.

The bell has a variety of uses and functions within the Hindu religion and Guyanese Hinduism. Despite each bell being made up of different material and having different sounds when rung, there are certain common functions performed in a religious context. The bell shows that human culture is one of connection through objects, not just to each other but to the divine as well, since when a devotee is playing, the deity and the devotee share the same body. By going beyond an art connoisseurial study of the Hindu bell, we can learn that the bell is meant to purify and bring the people praying closer to the gods both physically and mentally.

Sources:

Mohan, Urmila (2016), “From Prayer Beads to the mechanical counter: The negotiations of

chanting practices within a Hindu group” Archives de Sciences Sociales Des Religions 174:

Editions de l’EHESS, 191-212.

Prasad, Marehalli G., and Rajavel B., Acoustics of Chants, Conch-Shells, Bells and Gongs in

Hindu Worship Spaces M.S Narayanan memorial lecture, Acoustic 2013 New Delhi,

10-15 November, 2013, New Delhi, India, 137-152.

Singh, Odaipaul. "Hinduism in Guyana: A Study in Traditions of Worship." Ph.D. diss.. University

of Wisconsin, Madison, 1993, 310.

An image of the bell that was studied.

An image of the bell in the place where it is kept