a cocoanut and flowers on the grave and
lights the lamp, afterwards distributing the cocoanut. The Kabirpanthis
think that the soul of the dead person remains in the grave up to this
time, but when the lamp is burnt the soul mingles with the flame,
which is the soul of Kabir, and is absorbed into the deity. When
breaking a cocoanut over the grave of the dead the Kabirpanthis say,
'I am breaking the skull of Yama,' because they think that the soul of
a Kabirpanthi is absorbed into the deity and therefore is not liable
to be taken down to hell and judged by Chitragupta and punished by
Yama. From this it would appear that some of them do not believe in
the transmigration of souls.

8. Idol worship.

Ordinarily the Kabirpanthis have no regular worship except on the
occasion of a visit of the _guru_. But sometimes in the morning they
fold their hands and say '_Sat Sahib_,' or the 'True God,' two or three
times. They also clean a space with cowdung and place a lighted lamp
on it and say '_Jai Kabir Ki_,' or 'Victory to Kabir.' They conceive
of the deity as consisting of light, and therefore it seems probable
that, like the other Vaishnava sects, they really take him to be the
Sun. Kabir prohibited the worship of all idols and visible symbols,
but as might be expected the illiterate Kabirpanthis cannot adhere
strictly to this. Some of them worship the Bijak, the principal sacred
book of their sect. At Rudri near Dhamtari on the Mahanadi one of
the Gurus is buried, and a religious fair is held there. Recently
a platform has been made with a footprint of Kabir marked on it,
and this is venerated by the pilgrims. Similarly, Kudarmal is held
to contain the grave of Churaman, the first _guru_ after Dharam Das,
and a religious fair is held here at which the Kabirpanthis attend and
venerate the grave. Dharam Das himself is said to be buried at Puri,
the site of Jagannath's temple, but it seems doubtful whether this
story may not have been devised in order to give the Kabirpanthis a
valid reason for going on pilgrimage to Puri. Similarly, an arch and
platform in the court of the temple of Rama at Ramtek is considered
to belong to the Kabirpanthis, though the Brahmans of the temple say
that the arch was really made by the daughter of a Surajvansi king
of the locality in order to fasten her swing to it. Once in three
years the Mahar Kabirpanthis of Mandla make a sacrificial offering
of a goat to Dulha Deo, the bridegroom god, a