As the source of information about circumambulation has been available in the folk-tales and folk-lores of the world, we can say that the practice of walking round an object, person or sacrifice to influence, to honour or to purify, is ethnic in nature. Different ethnic groups have different implications of the practice of circumambulation. Some use it for the ritual in sacrifice, others for different ceremonies; while some for religious purposes, others for superstitions and magical practices.

About the practice of circumambulation, the 'Encyclopaedia of religion and Ethics' by Hastings has given an account, that it is an Indo-European practice, particularly prevalent as a custom with religious and magical signification. But besides Indo-European people, this practice has been seen to be observed by the Semitic, African, Egyptian, Japanese and Australian aboriginal tribes also. Conclusively, it is a worldwide practice which is adopted by different Ethnic groups, sometimes by the instinct of imitation and sometimes by having an understanding of the controlling power and its limitations of the time and the space. Mr. N. M. Penzer, who added his critical notes to the translation of 'Ocean of Story' done by C. H. Tawney, gave his views, quoted mostly from the 'Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics' as far as the practice of circumambulation is concerned in India.

The practice of walking round an object of reverence with the right hand toward it as mentioned in the marriage ceremony of Vãsavadattã in the 'Ocean of Story' ( Vol. I, p. 80fif ), has beeu discussed by Samuel Fergusson in his paper published in the 'Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy', for March 1877 ( Vol. I, Ser. 11, No. 12) only with the allusion of one custom of marriage after comparing it with the practice of ancient Romans and Celts (Irish, Welsh, British and Northern France). He interpreted the custom of circumambulation after establishing the idea that this movement was a symbol of the cosmical rotation, an imitation of the apparent course of the Sun in the heaven. (Cf. Hyginus Fable CCV cited in the ' Ocena of Story Vol. I. 1924, p. 190.)