Puja (also pooja or poojah; Sanskrit: "reverence" or "worship"; from Dravidian pu, "flower") is a Hindu religious ritual that takes a wide variety of forms depending on region, time of day, and religious tradition.
Puja can be a short daily ritual at home or an elaborate ceremony in a temple during a festival. It might be practiced alone or with the help of a priest (pujari). It could be for a specific purpose or simply as an act of devotion.
In its simplest form, puja involves treating an image of a god like an honored royal guest. Rituals may include waking the image, washing and dressing it, and offering food and flowers. The rituals may be observed in silence or accompanied by prayers.
Puja can also include gazing upon an image (darsan), walking around a shrine (pradakshina), or offering a sacrifice (bali) into a sacred fire (homa).
A common aspect of puja in both temples and homes is arti, in which a lamp is waved in a clockwise circle before the deity or an honored person while prayers or hymns are recited.
References
- Britannica Editors. "puja". Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Sep. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/topic/puja.
- "puja." Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions (Oxford UP, 2000), p. 461.