Tamasha (ablution)

{{Short description|Ablution ritual in Mandaeism}}

File:Parwanaya 2015 Ahvaz 09.jpg during the 2015 Parwanaya festival in Ahvaz, Iran]]

{{Mandaeism}}

In Mandaeism, tamasha or ṭamaša ({{langx|myz|ࡈࡌࡀࡔࡀ|translit=ṭmaša}}) is an ablution ritual that does not require the assistance of a priest.{{cite book|last=Gelbert|first=Carlos|title=The Mandaeans and the Jews|publisher=Living Water Books|publication-place=Edensor Park, NSW|year=2005|isbn=0-9580346-2-1|oclc=68208613}} Tamasha is performed by triple immersion in river (yardna) water. It is performed by women after menstruation or childbirth, men and women after sexual activity or nocturnal emission, touching a corpse, or any other type of defilement (ṭnupa{{cite book|last=Nasoraia|first=Brikha H.S.|author-link=Brikha Nasoraia|title=The Mandaean gnostic religion: worship practice and deep thought|publisher=Sterling|publication-place=New Delhi|year=2021|isbn=978-81-950824-1-4|oclc=1272858968}}).{{cite book | last=Häberl | first=Charles | url=https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781800856271 | title=The Book of Kings and the Explanations of This World: A Universal History from the Late Sasanian Empire | location=Liverpool | publisher=Liverpool University Press | date=2022 | isbn=978-1-80085-627-1 | page=16| doi=10.3828/9781800856271 | doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 }}{{cite web|author=Mandaean Awareness and Guidance Board|date=28 May 2014|title=Mandaean Beliefs & Mandaean Practices|url=http://www.mandaeanunion.com/culture/item/1249-mandaean-beliefs|website=Mandaean Associations Union|access-date=26 November 2021}} It is also performed after subsiding from unclean thoughts or anger at another person.{{cite book|last=Buckley|first=Jorunn Jacobsen|title=The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people|publisher=Oxford University Press|publication-place=New York|year=2002|isbn=0-19-515385-5|oclc=65198443}}

Rishama is another type of ablution performed by Mandaeans, in which the face and limbs are washed (similar to the wudu in Islam). However, unlike the tamasha, it does not involve full-body immersion in water. The rishama and tamasha ablution rituals, which do not require priestly assistance, are distinct from masbuta, which needs to be performed by a priest. Whereas the tamasha is a "self-immersion" in which devotees dip themselves into the water, during the masbuta, devotees need to be immersed into water by a priest, not by themselves.{{cite book|last1=Lupieri|first1=Edmundo|title=The Mandaeans: The Last Gnostics|date=2001|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=9780802833501|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJ73YfrZ2T4C}}

The tamasha ablution is comparable to tevilah in Judaism and ghusl in Islam.