So far as ordinary daily worship is concerned, there is not much difference in the mode of worship between temple and domestic worship. Every item is done on a large scale, and certain special Agamic or Tantric rites are added to the sixteen Upacharas already mentioned. At the present time, there are, especially in the case of Vishnu temples, two forms of temple worship, called Pancharatra and Vaikhanasa. In the former, which is like domestic worship in all essential points, any Brahman may officiate as temple priest. In the latter, only Vaikhanasa Archakas may officiate.
All big temples are generally well endowed, and some temples receive from Government annual grants of money, called tasdik. The management of the temple affairs rests with the Dharmakarthas (trustees), who practically have absolute control over the temple funds. All the temple servants, such as Archakas, Parcharakas, and Adhyapakas, and the non-Brahman servants (sweepers, flower-gatherers, musicians and dancing-girls) are subject to the authority of the Dharmakartha. For their services in the temple, these people are paid partly in money, and partly in kind. The cooked food, which is offered daily to the god, is distributed among the temple servants. On ordinary days, the offerings of cooked food made by the Archakas, and the fruits brought by those who come to worship, are offered only to the mula vigraha, whereas, on festival days, they are offered to the utsava vigrahas.
For worship in Vishnu temples, flowers and tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) are used. In Siva temples, bilva (bael: Ægle Marmelos) leaves are substituted for tulsi. At the close of the worship, the Archaka gives to those present thirtham (holy water), tulsi or bilva leaves, and vibhuthi (sacred ashes) according to the nature of the temple. At Vishnu temples, immediately after the giving of thirtham, an inverted bowl, bearing on it the feet of Vishnu (satari or sadagopam), is placed by the Archaka first on the head, and then on the right shoulder, and again on the head, in the case of grown up and married males, and only on the head in the case of females and young people. The bowl is always kept near the mula vigraha, and, on festival days, when the god is taken in procession through the streets, it is carried along with the utsava vigraha. On festival days, such as Dhipavali, Vaikunta Ekadasi, Dwadasi, etc., the god of the temple is taken in procession through the main streets of the town or village. The idol, thus borne in procession, is not the stone figure, but the portable one made of metal (utsava vigraha), which is usually kept in the temple in front of the Mula idol. At almost every important temple, an annual festival called Brahmotsavam, which usually lasts ten days, is celebrated. Every night during this festival, the god is seated on the clay, wooden or metal figure of some animal as a vehicle, e.g., Garuda, horse, elephant, bull, Hanuman, peacock, yali, etc., and taken in procession, accompanied by a crowd of Brahmans chanting the Vedas and Tamil Nalayara Prapandhams, if the temple is an important one. Of the vehicles or vahanams, Hanuman and Garuda are special to Vishnu, and the bull (Nandi) and tiger to Siva. The others are common to both deities. During the month of May, the festival of the god Varadaraja takes place annually. On one of the ten days of this festival, the idol, which has gone through a regular marriage ceremony, is placed on an elaborately decorated car (ratha), and dragged through the main streets. The car frequently bears a number of carved images of a very obscene nature, the object of which, it is said, is to avert the evil eye. Various castes, besides Brahmans, take part in temple worship, at which the saints of both Siva and Vishnu--Nayanmar and Alvars--are worshipped. The Brahmans do not entirely ignore the worship of the lower deities, such as Mariamma, Muneswara, Kodamanitaya, etc. At Udipi in South Canara, the centre of the Madhva cult, where Madhva preached his Dvaitic philosophy, and where there are several mutts presided over by celibate priests, the Brahmans often make a vow to the Bhuthas (devils) of the Paravas and Nalkes. Quite recently, we saw an orthodox Shivalli Brahman, employed under the priest of one of the Udipi mutts, celebrating the nema (festival) of a bhutha named Panjurli, in fulfilment of a vow made when his son was ill. The Nalke devil-dancers were sent for, and the dance took place in the courtyard of the Brahman's house. During the leaf festival at Periyapalayam near Madras, Brahman males and females may be seen wearing leafy twigs of margosa (Melia Azadirachta), and going round the Mariamma shrine.