panchayatana
पञ्चायतन pañcāyatanaThe five-shrine arrangement of household worship, in which Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, Surya and Ganapati are honoured together, one of them placed at the centre and the other four around it. It is a Smarta domestic convention rather than a classification of scripture, so a deity's presence in it says nothing about whether that deity's canon survives.
Where this term appears
- Eighty-five titles and no text: the Saura tantras and how a tradition disappears Lineages
It is the panchayatana , the five-shrine arrangement of the Smarta household altar, where five images are set out with the worshipper's chosen deity in the centre.
- The Four Streams of Hinduism Essentials
The rite is the panchayatana puja , the "five-shrine worship," in which images of the five are arranged in a quincunx, one at the centre and four at the corners.
- Why this form exists Treatise
Their rise was helped by a wider settlement of the age, the panchayatana worship of the Smarta tradition, in which five deities, Vishnu, Shiva, the Goddess, Surya and Ganesha, could each be given the central pl…