Jangams, also known as Lingayats is one of the forms in which the Linga is worshipped. The essential characteristic of the Lingayats is wearing of the emblem on some part of the dress or person. Jangams is of a small size, made of copper or silver, and is commonly worn, round the neck, or sometimes tied in the turban.
This is a common custom with the Shaivas, Shiva worshippers. The Jangamas smear their foreheads with Vibhuti or ashes, wear necklaces, and carry rosaries made of the Rudraksha seed. The clerical members of the sect usually stain their garments with red ochre.
In the Northern India Jangams are rarely seen except as mendicants, leading about a bull, the living type of Nandi, the bull of Shiva. Nandi is decorated with housings of various colours and strings of kauri shells. The conductor carries a bell in his hand, and, thus accompanied, goes about from place to place, subsisting upon alms.
In the South of India, the Lingayats are numerous, and the officiating priests of the Shiva shrines are commonly of this sect, when they bear the designations of Arddhya and Panddratn. The sect is also there known by the name of Vira Saiva.
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