Rudraksha Mala

religious object · India · South Asia

The rudraksha mala is a string of 108 prayer beads made from the seeds of the rudraksha tree, Elaeocarpus ganitrus, which grows in the Himalayas, the Indo-Malayan region and as far as Southeast Asia. The name means 'Rudra's eye', and the Shiva Purana relates that the rudraksha sprang from the tears that fell from the god Rudra-Shiva's eyes during his long penance, so that the beads are sacred to Shiva and are worn by Shaiva ascetics and householder devotees alike. Each bead is marked with vertical grooves called mukhi, from one to twenty-one, of which the five-faced type is the most common and

Open in the interactive archive →