Indra—Sathakruthu, Vajranam, Sachipathi.Yama—Vaivaswata, Pithrupathi, Dharmarāja.Varuna—Prachethas, Apāmpathi, Swarūpinam.Sōman—Indum, Nisākaram, Ōshadīsam.Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.Nine kinds of grains soaked in water are placed in the seed-pans. These grains areDolichos Lablab(two varieties),Phaseolus Mungo(two varieties),Oryza sativa,Cicer Arietinum,Cajanus indicus,Eleusine Coracana, andVigna Catiang. The tying of the wrist-thread (pratisaram) is next proceeded with. Two cotton threads are laid on a vessel representing Varuna. After the recitation of Vēdic verses, the bridegroom takes one of the threads, and, dipping it in turmeric paste, holds it with his left thumb, smears some of the paste on it with his right thumb and forefinger, and ties it on the left wrist of the bride. The purōhit ties the other thread on the right wrist of the bridegroom, who, facing the assembly, says “I am going to take the bride.” He then recites the following Vēdic verse:—“Go to my future father-in-law with due precautions, and mingle with the members of his family. This marriage is sure to be pleasing to Indra, because he gets oblations of food, etc., after the marriage. May your path be smooth and free from thorns. May Sūrya and Bhaga promote our dhāmpathyam (companionship).”The purōhit again proclaims the marriage, and the gōtras and names of three generations are repeated. Those assembled then bless the couple. The bride’s father says that he is prepared to give his daughter in marriage to the bridegroom, who states that he accepts her. The father of the bride washes the feet of the bridegroom placed on a tray with milk and water. The bridegroom then washes the feet of the bride’s father. The bride sits in her father’s lap, and her mother stands at her side. The father, repeating the names of the bridegroom’s ancestors for three generations, saysthat he is giving his daughter to him. He places the hand of the bride on that of the bridegroom, and both he and the bride’s mother pour water over the united hands of the contracting couple. The following slōka is repeated:—“I am giving you a virgin decorated with jewels, to enable me to obtain religious merit.” The bridegroom takes the bride by the hand, and both take their seats in front of the sacred fire. This part of the ceremonial is called dhāre (pouring of water). Much importance is attached to it by Tulu Brāhmans. Among Non-Brāhman castes in South Canara, it forms the binding portion of the marriage ceremony. After the pouring of ghī as an oblation, the bridegroom throws down a few twigs of dharbha grass, and repeats the formula:—“Oh! dharbha, thou art capable of giving royal powers, and the teacher’s seat. May I not be separated from thee.” Then the bride’s father, giving a vessel of water, says “Here is Arghya water.” The bridegroom receives it with the formula:—“May this water destroy my enemies. May brilliancy, energy, strength, life, renown, glory, splendour, and power dwell in me.” Once again the bride’s father washes the feet of the bridegroom, who salutes his father-in-law, saying “Oh! water, unite me with fame, splendour, and milk. Make me beloved by all creatures, the lord of cattle. May fame, heroism, and energy dwell in me.” The bride’s father pours some water from a vessel over the hand of the bridegroom, who says “To the ocean I send you, the imperishable waters; go back to your source. May I not suffer loss in my offspring. May my sap not be shed.” A mixture of honey, plantain fruit, and ghī, is given to the bridegroom by the bride’s father with the words “Ayam Madhuparko” (honey mixture). Receiving it, the bridegroom mutters thefollowing:—“What is the honeyed, highest form of honey which consists in the enjoyment of food; by that honeyed highest form of honey, may I become highest, honeyed, an enjoyer of food.” He partakes three times of the mixture, and says:—“I eat thee for the sake of brilliancy, luck, glory, power, and the enjoyment of food.” Then the bride’s father gives a cocoanut to the bridegroom, saying “Gauhu” (cow). The bridegroom receives it with the words “Oh! cow, destroy my sin, and that of my father-in-law.” According to the Grihya Sūtras, a cow should be presented to the bridegroom, to be cooked or preserved. Next a plantain fruit is given to the bridegroom, who, after eating a small portion of it, hands it to the bride. The bride sits on a heap or bundle of paddy (unhusked rice), and the bridegroom says “Oh! Varuna, bless her with wealth. May there be no ill-feeling between herself, her brothers and sisters. Oh! Brihaspathi, bless her that she may not lose her husband. Oh! Indra, bless her to be fertile. Oh! Savitha, bless her that she may be happy in all respects. Oh! girl, be gentle-eyed and friendly to me. Let your look be of such a nature as not to kill your husband. Be kind to me, and to my brothers.88May you shine with lustre, and be of good repute. Live long, and bear living children.” The pair are then seated, and the bridegroom, taking a blade of dharbha grass, passes it between the eyebrows of the bride, and throws it behind her, saying “With this dharbha grass I remove the evil influence of any bad mark thou mayst possess, which is likely to cause widowhood.” [Certain marks or curls (suli) forebode prosperity, and others misery to a family into which a girl entersby marriage. And, when a wealthy Hindu meditates purchasing a horse, he looks to the presence or absence of certain marks on particular parts of the body, and thereby forms a judgment of the temper and qualities of the animal.] The bridegroom then repeats the following:—“Now they ought to rejoice, and not cry. They have arranged our union to bring happiness to both of us. In view of the happiness we are to enjoy hereafter, they should be glad. This is a fitting occasion for rejoicing.” Four Brāhmans next bring water, and the bridegroom receives it, saying:—“May the evil qualities of this water disappear; may it increase. Let the Brāhmans bring water for the bath, and may it bring long life and children to her.” A bundle of paddy, or a basket filled therewith, is brought to the pandal. The bride sits on the paddy, and a ring of dharbha grass is placed on her head. The bridegroom repeats the formula “Blessed by the Sūrya, sit round the sacred fire, and look at the dharbha ring, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law.” A yoke is then brought, one end of which is placed on the head of the bride above the ring, and the following formula is repeated:—“Oh! Indra, cleanse and purify this girl, just as you did in the case of Abhala, by pouring water through three holes before marrying her.” Abhala was an ugly woman, who wished to marry Indra. To attain this end, she did penance for a long time, and, meeting Indra, requested him to fulfil her desire. Indra made her his wife, after transforming her into a beautiful woman by sprinkling water over her through the holes in the wheels of the car which was his vehicle. Into the hole of the yoke a gold coin, or the tāli (marriage badge), is dropped, with the words “May this gold prove a blessing to you. May the yoke, the hole of the yoke, bring happinessto you. May we be blessed to unite your body with mine.” Then the bridegroom, sprinkling water over the yoke and coin, says:—“May you become purified by the sun through this purificatory water. May this water, which is the cause of thunder and lightning, bring happiness to you. Oh! girl, may this water give you health and long life. A new and costly silk cloth (kūrai), purchased by the bridegroom, is given to the bride, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! Indra, listen to my prayers; accept them, and fulfil my desires.” The bride puts on the cloth, with the assistance of the bridegroom’s sister, and sits on her father’s lap. The bridegroom, taking up the tāli, ties it by the string on the bride’s neck, saying:—“Oh! girl, I am tying the tāli to secure religious merit.” This is not a Vēdic verse, and this part of the ceremony is not included in the Grihya Sūtras. All the Brāhmans assembled bless the couple by throwing rice over their heads. A dharbha waist-cord is passed round the waist of the bride, and the following is repeated:—“This girl is gazing at Agni, wishing for health, wealth, strength and children. I am binding her for her good.” The bridegroom then holds the hand of the bride, and both go to the sacred fire, where the former says:—“Let Sūrya lead to Agni, and may you obtain permission from the Aswins to do so. Go with me to my house. Be my wife, and the mistress of my house. Instruct and help me in the performance of sacrifices.” After offerings of ghī in the sacred fire, the bridegroom says:—“Sōma was your husband; Gandharva knew thee next; Agni was your third husband. I, son of man, am your fourth husband. Sōma gave you to Gandharva, and Gandharva gave you to Agni, who gave to me with progeny and wealth.” The bridegroom takes hold of the bride’sright wrist, and, pressing on the fingers, passes his hand over the united fingers three times. This is called Pānigrahanam. To the Nambūtiri Brāhman this is a very important item, being the binding part of the marriage ceremonial. Some years ago, at a village near Chalakkudi in the Cochin State, a Nambūtiri refused to accept a girl as his bride, because the purōhit inadvertently grasped her fingers, to show how it ought to be done at the time of the marriage ceremony. The purōhit had to marry the girl himself. The next item in the ceremonial is Sapthapathi, or the taking of the seven steps. This is considered as the most binding portion thereof. The bridegroom lifts the left foot of the bride seven times, repeating the following:—“One step for sap, may Vishnu go after thee. Two steps for juice, may Vishnu go after thee. Three steps for vows, may Vishnu go after thee. Four steps for comfort, may Vishnu go after thee. Five steps for cattle, may Vishnu go after thee. Six steps for the prospering of wealth, may Vishnu go after thee. Seven steps for the seven-fold hōtriship,89may Vishnu go after thee. With seven steps we have become companions. May I attain to friendship with thee. May I not be separated from thy friendship. Mayst thou not be separated from my friendship. Let us be united; let us always take counsel together with good hearts and mutual love. May we grow in strength and prosperity together. Now we are one in minds, deeds, and desires. Thou art Rik, I am Sāmam; I am the sky, thou art the earth; I am the semen, thou art the bearer; I am the mind, thou art the tongue. Follow me faithfully, that we may have wealth and children together. Come thou of sweetspeech.” The bridegroom then does hōmam, repeating the following:—“We are offering oblations to Sōma, Gandharva, and Agni. This girl has just passed her virginity. Make her leave her father’s house. Bless her to remain fixed in her husband’s house. May she have a good son by your blessing. Cause her to beget ten children, and I shall be the eleventh child. Oh! Agni, bless her with children, and make them long-lived. Oh! Varuna, I pray to you for the same thing. May this woman be freed from the sorrow arising out of sterility, and be blessed by Garhapathyāgni. May she have a number of children in her, and become the mother of many living children. Oh! girl, may your house never know lamentations during nights caused by deaths. May you live long and happy with your husband and children. May the sky protect thy back; may Vāyu strengthen your thighs; and the Aswins your breast. May Savitri look after thy suckling sons. Until the garment is put on, may Brihaspathi guard them, and the Viswedēvas afterwards. Oh! Varuna, make me strong and healthy. Do not steal away years from our ages. All those who offer oblations pray for the same. Oh! you all-pervading Agni, pacify Varuna; you who blaze forth into flames to receive oblations, be friendly towards us. Be near us, and protect us. Receive, and be satisfied with our oblations. Make us prosperous. We are always thinking of you. Take our oblations to the several dēvatas, and give us medicine.” The bride next treads on a stone, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! girl, tread on this stone. Be firm like it. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm. Overcome thy enemies.” Some fried paddy is put in the sacred fire, and the bridegroom repeats the following:—“Oh! Agni, I am offering the fried grains, so that this girl may beblessed with long life. Oh! Agni, give me my wife with children, just as in olden days you were given Sūryayi with wealth. Oh! Agni, bless my wife with lustre and longevity. Also bless her husband with long life, that she may live happily. Oh! Agni, help us to overcome our enemies.” Again the bride treads on the stone, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! girl, tread on this stone, and be firm like it. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm. Overcome thy enemies.” This is followed by the offering of fried grain with the following formula:—“The virgins prayed to Sūrya and Agni to secure husbands, and they were at once granted their boons. Such an Agni is now being propitiated by offerings of fried paddy. Let him make the bride leave her father’s house.” For the third time, the bride treads on the stone, and fried paddy is offered with the formula:—“Oh! Agni, thou art the giver of life, and receiver of oblations. Oblations of ghī are now offered to you. Bless the pair to be of one mind.” The dharbha girdle is removed from the bride’s waist, with the verse: “I am loosening you from the bondage of Varuna. I am now removing the thread with which Sūrya bound you.” Those assembled then disperse. Towards evening, Brāhmans again assemble, and the bride and bridegroom sit before the sacred fire, while the former repeat several Vēdic riks. They are supposed to start for their home, driving in a carriage, and the verses repeated have reference to the chariot, horses, boats, etc. After ghī has been poured into the fire, a child, who should be a male who has not lost brothers or sisters, is seated in the lap of the bride, and the bridegroom says:—“May cows, horses, men, and wealth, increase in this house. Let this child occupy your lap, just as the Sōma creeper which gives strengthto the Dēvatas occupies the regions of the stars.” Giving some plantain fruit to the child, the bridegroom says:—“Oh! fruits, ye bear seeds. May my wife bear seeds likewise by your blessing.” Then the pair are shown Druva and Arundathi (the pole star and Ursa major), which are worshipped with the words:—“The seven Rishis who have led to firmness, she, Arundathi, who stands first among the six Krithikas (Pleiads), may she the eighth one, who leads the conjunction of the (moon with the) six Krithikas, the first (among conjunctions) shine upon us. Firm dwelling, firm origin; the firm one art thou, standing on the side of firmness. Thou art the pillar of the stars. Thus protect me against my adversaries.” They then proceed to perform the Sthālipāka ceremony, in which the bride should cook some rice, which the bridegroom offers as an oblation in the sacred fire. In practice, however, a little food is brought, and placed in the fire without being cooked. The purōhit decorates aFicusstick with dharbha grass, and gives it to the bridegroom. It is placed in the roof, or somewhere within the house, near the seed-pans. [According to the Grihya Sūtras, the couple ought to occupy the same mat, with the stick between them. This is not in vogue amongst several sections of Brāhmans. The Mysore Carnatakas, Mandya Aiyangars, and Shivallis, observe a kindred ceremony. Amongst the Mandyas, for example, on the fourth night of the marriage rites, the bridal couple occupy the same mat for a short time, and a stick is placed between them. The Pajamadmē, or mat marriage, amongst the Shivalli Brāhmans, evidently refers to this custom.] On the second and third days of the marriage ceremonies, hōmams are performed in the morning and evening, and the nalagu ceremony isperformed. In this, the couple are seated on two planks covered with mats and cloth, amidst a large number of women assembled within the pandal. In front of them, betel leaves, areca nuts, fruits, flowers, and turmeric paste are placed in a tray. The women sing songs which they have learnt from childhood, and the bride also sings the praises of the bridegroom. Taking a little of the turmeric paste rendered red by the addition of chunam (lime), she makes marks by drawing lines over the feet (nalangu idal). The ceremony closes with the waving of ārāthi (water coloured red with turmeric and chunam), and the distribution of pān-supāri (betel leaves and areca nuts). The waving is done by two women, who sing appropriate songs. On the fourth day, Brāhmans assemble, and the pair are seated in their midst. After the recitation of Vēdic verses, the contracting couple are blessed. A small quantity of turmeric paste, reddened by the addition of chunam, is mixed with ghī, and smeared over the shoulders of the pair, and a mark is made on their foreheads. This is called Pachchai Kalyānam, and is peculiar to Tamil Brāhmans, both Smarthas and Vaishnavas. Amongst Tamil Brāhmans, prominence is given to the maternal uncles on the fourth day. The bride and bridegroom are carried astride on the shoulders of their uncles, who dance to the strains of a band. When they meet, the couple exchange garlands (malaimāththal). Towards evening, a procession is got up at the expense of the maternal uncle of the bride, and is hence called Ammān Kōlam. The bride is dressed up as a boy, and another girl is dressed up to represent the bride. They are taken in procession through the streets, and, on their return, the pseudo-bridegroom is made to speak to the real bridegroom in somewhat insolent tones, and some mock play isindulged in. The real bridegroom is addressed as if he was the syce (groom) or gumastha (clerk) of the pseudo-bridegroom, and is sometimes treated as a thief, and judgment passed on him by the latter. Among Sri Vaishnavas, after the Pachchai smearing ceremony, the bridal couple roll a cocoanut to and fro across the dais, and the assembled Brāhmans chant stanzas in Tamil composed by a Vaishnava lady named Āndal, an avatar of Lakshmi, who dedicated herself to Vishnu. In these stanzas, she narrates to her attendants the dream, in which she went through the marriage ceremony after her dedication to the god. Pān-supāri, of which a little, together with some money, is set apart for Āndal, is then distributed to all present. A large crowd generally assembles, as it is believed that the chanting of Āndal’s srisukthi (praise of Lakshmi) brings a general blessing. The family priest calls out the names and gōtras of those who have become related to the bride and bridegroom through their marriage. As each person’s name is called out, he or she is supposed to make a present of cloths, money, etc., to the bridegroom or bride. [The Telugu and Carnataka Brāhmans, instead of the Pachchai Kalyānam, perform a ceremony called Nāgavali on the fourth or fifth day. Thirty-two lights and two vessels, representing Siva and Parvathi, are arranged in the form of a square. Unbleached thread, soaked in turmeric paste, is passed round the square, and tied to the pandal. The bridal couple sit in front of the square, and, after doing pūja (worship), cut the thread, and take their seats within the square. The bridegroom ties a tāli of black glass beads on the bride’s neck, in the presence of 33 crores (330 millions) of gods, represented by a number of small pots arranged round the square. Close to the pots are the figures of two elephants,designed in rice grains and salt respectively. After going round the pots, the couple separate, and the bridegroom stands by the salt elephant, and the bride by the other. They then talk about the money value of the two animals, and an altercation takes place, during which they again go round the pots, and stand, the bridegroom near the rice elephant, and the bride near the salt one. The bargaining as to the price of the animals is renewed, and the couple go round the pots once more. This ceremony is followed by a burlesque of domestic life. The bride is presented with two wooden dolls from Tirupati, and told to make a cradle out of the bridegroom’s turmeric-coloured cloth, which he wore on the tāli-tying day. The couple converse on domestic matters, and the bridegroom asks the bride to attend to her household affairs, so that he may go to his duties. She pleads her inability to do so because of the children, and asks him to take charge of them. She then shows the babies (dolls) to all present, and a good deal of fun is made out of the incident. The bride, with her mother standing by her side near two empty chairs, is then introduced to her new relations by marriage, who sit in pairs on the chairs, and make presents of pān-supāri and turmeric.] On the fifth day of the marriage ceremonies, before dawn, the bridal couple are seated on the dais, and the Gandharva stick is removed, with the words:—“Oh! Visvāwasu Gandharva, I pray to you to make this girl my wife. Unite her with me. Leave her, and seek another.” The bridegroom then performs hōmams. A coin is placed on the bride’s head, and a little ghī put thereon. Gazing at the bridegroom, she says:—“With a loving heart I regard thee who knowest my heart. Thou art radiant with tapas (penance). Fill me with a child, and this house of ourswith wealth. Thou art desirous of a son. Thus shalt thou reproduce thyself.” Looking at the bride, the bridegroom then says:—“I see thee radiant and eager to be filled with child by me. Thou art in thy youth now. Enjoy me, therefore, while I am over you, and so reproduce thyself, being desirous of a son.” Touching the bride’s breasts with his ring-finger, and then touching his heart, he repeats the following:—“May the Viswe gods unite our hearts; may the water unite our hearts; may Vāyu and Brahma unite our hearts; and may Sarasvati teach us both conversation appropriate to this occasion of our intercourse.” More Vēdic riks are then recited, as follows:—“Thou Prajāpathi, enter my body that I may have vigour during this act; so thou Thvastri, who fashionest forms with Vishnu and other gods; so thou Indra, who grantest boons with thy friends the Viswedēvas, by thy blessing may we have many sons. May Vishnu make thy womb ready; may Thvashtri frame the shape (of the child); may Prajāpathi pour forth (the sperm); may Dhatri give thee conception. Give conception, Sinivāli; give conception, Sarasvati. May the two Asvins, wreathed with lotus, give conception to thee. The embryo which the two Asvins produce with their golden kindling sticks, that embryo we call into thy womb, that thou mayst give birth to it after ten months. As the earth is pregnant with Agni, as the heaven is pregnant with Indra, as Vāyu dwells in the womb of the regions (of the earth), thus I place an embryo in thy womb. Open thy womb; take in the sperm. May a male child, an embryo, be begotten in the womb. The mother bears him ten months, may he be born, the most valiant of his kin. May a male embryo enter the womb, as an arrow the quiver; may a man be born here, thy son, after tenmonths. I do with thee (the work) that is sacred to Prajāpathi; may an embryo enter the womb. May a child be born without deficiency, with all its limbs, not blind, not lame, not sucked out by Pisāchas” (devils). The marriage is brought to a close, after this recitation, with the presentation of fruits, etc., to all the Brāhmans assembled, and to all relations, children included. The bridegroom chews betel for the first time on this day. The wrist-threads are removed, and the seed-pans containing the seedlings, which have been worshipped daily, are taken in procession to a tank (pond), into which the seedlings are thrown.It will be noticed that prayers for male issue are of frequent occurrence during the marriage ceremonial. In Sanskrit works, Putra (son) is defined as one who delivers a parent from a hell called put. It is generally believed that the welfare of a parent’s soul depends on the performance of srādh (memorial services) by his son. It was laid down by Manu that a man is perfect, when he consists of three—himself, his wife, and his son. In the Rig Vēda it is stated that “when a father sees the face of a living son, he pays a debt in him, and gains immortality. The pleasure which a father has in his son exceeds all other enjoyments. His wife is a friend, his daughter an object of companion, his son shines as his light in the highest world.” The following story of a certain pious man of ascetical temperament, who determined to shirk the religious duty of taking a wife, is narrated by Monier Williams:—“Quietly skipping over the second prescribed period of life, during which he ought to have been a householder (grihastha), he entered at once upon the third period—that is to say, he became an ascetic, abjured all female society, and retired to the woods. Wandering about one day,absorbed in meditation, he was startled by an extraordinary spectacle. He saw before him a deep and apparently bottomless pit. Around its edge some unhappy men were hanging suspended by ropes of grass, at which here and there a rat was nibbling. On asking their history, he discovered to his horror that they were his own ancestors compelled to hang in this unpleasant manner, and doomed eventually to fall into the abyss, unless he went back into the world, did his duty like a man, married a suitable wife, and had a son, who would be able to release them from their critical predicament.” This legend is recorded in detail in the Mahābhārata.A curious mock marriage ceremony is celebrated amongst Brāhmans when an individual marries a third wife. It is believed that a third marriage is very inauspicious, and that the bride will become a widow. To prevent this mishap, the man is made to marry the arka plant (Calotropis gigantea), and the real marriage thus becomes the fourth. If this ceremony is carried on in orthodox fashion, it is generally celebrated on some Sunday or Monday, when the constellation Astham is visible. The bridegroom and a Brāhman priest, accompanied by a third Brāhman, repair to a spot where the arka plant (a very common weed) is growing. The plant is decorated with a cloth and a piece of string, and symbolised into the sun. The bridegroom then invokes it thus:—“Oh! master of three lōks, Oh! the seven-horsed, Oh! Rāvi, avert the evils of the third marriage.” Next the plant is addressed with the words:—“You are the oldest of the plants of this world. Brahma created you to save such of us as have to marry a third time, so please become my wife.” The Brāhman who accompanies the bridegroom becomes his father-in-law for the moment, and says to him:—“I give you in marriageAditya’s great grand-daughter, Savi’s grand-daughter, and my daughter Arkakanya.” All the ceremonies, such as making hōmam, tāli-tying, etc., are performed as at a regular marriage, and, after the recitation of a few sentences from the Vēdas, the plant is cut down. “The plant,” Mr. A. Srinivasan writes,90“is named arka after the sun. When the car of the sun turns towards the north, every Hindu applies the leaves of this plant to his head before he bathes, in honour of the event. The plant is, besides, believed to be a willing scapegoat to others’ ills. Oil and ghī applied to the head of the victim of persistent illness has only to be transferred to this plant, when it withers and saves the man, even as Baber is said to have saved his son. The poet Kalidāsa describes sweet Sakuntala, born of a shaggy dweller of the forest, as a garland of jasmine thrown on an arka plant. ‘May the arka grow luxuriant in your house’ is the commonest form of curse. ‘Be thou belaboured with arka leaves’ is familiar in the mouths of reprimanding mothers. Adulterers were, half a century ago, seated on an ass, face to the tail, and marched through the village. The public disgrace was enhanced by placing a garland of the despised arka leaves on their head. [Uppiliyan women convicted of immorality are said to be garlanded with arka flowers, and made to carry a basket of mud round the village.] A Telugu proverb asks ‘Does the bee ever seek the arka flower?’ The reasons for the ill-repute that this plant suffers from are not at all clear. The fact that it has a partiality for wastes has evidently brought on its devoted head the dismal associations of desolation, but there would seem to be more deep-seated hatred to the plant than has beenexplained.” A Tamil proverb has it that he who crushes the bud of the arka earns merit. Some Telugu and Canarese Brāhmans, who follow the Yajur Vēda or Rig Vēda, consider the arka plant as sacred, and use the leaves thereof during the nāndhi (ancestor invoking) ceremony, which is performed as one of the marriage rites. Two or three arka leaves, with betel leaves and areca nuts, are tied to the cloth, which is attached to a stick as representing the ancestors (pithrus). With some the arka leaves are replaced by leaves ofPongamia glabra. On rathasapthami day (the seventh day after the new moon in the month Āvani), an orthodox Hindu should bathe his head and shoulders with arka leaves in propitiation of Sūrya (the sun). Brāhmans who follow the Sāma Vēda, during the annual upākarmam ceremony, make use of arka leaves and flowers in worshipping the Rishis and Pithrus. On the upākarmam day, the Sāma Vēdis invoke their sixty-two Rishis and the last three ancestors, who are represented by sixty-five clay balls placed on arka leaves. To them are offered arka flowers, fruits of karai-chedi (Canthium parviflorum), and nāval (Eugenia Jambolana). In addition to this worship, they perform the Rishi and Pithru tharpanam by offering water, gingelly (Sesamum indicum) seeds, and rice. The celebrant, prior to dipping his hand into the water, places in his hands two arka leaves, gingelly, and rice. The juice of the arka plant is a favourite agent in the hands of suicides. Among the Tangalān Paraiyans, if a young man dies before he is married, a ceremony called kannikazhithal (removing bachelorhood) is performed. Before the corpse is laid on the bier, a garland of arka flowers is placed round its neck, and balls of mud from a gutter are laid on the head, knees, and other parts of the body. In some places a variant of theceremony consists in the erection of a mimic marriage booth, which is covered with leaves of the arka plant, flowers of which are also placed round the neck as a garland. At a form of marriage called rambha or kathali (plantain) marriage, the arka plant is replaced by a plantain tree (Musa). It is performed by those who happen to be eldest brothers, and who are incapable of getting married, so as to give a chance to younger brothers, who are not allowed to marry unless the elder brother or brothers are already married.At the present day, many Hindus disregard certain ceremonies, in the celebration of which their forefathers were most scrupulous. Even the daily ceremonial ablutions, which are all important to a Brāhman from a shāstraic point of view, are now neglected by a large majority, and the prayers (mantrams), which should be chanted during their performance, are forgotten. But no Brāhman, orthodox or unorthodox, dares to abandon the death ceremonial, and annual srādh (memorial rites). A Brāhman beggar, when soliciting alms, invariably pleads that he has to perform his father or mother’s srādh, or upanayanam (thread ceremony) of his children, and he rarely goes away empty-handed. “The constant periodical performance,” Monier Williams writes,91“of commemorative obsequies is regarded in the light of a positive and peremptory obligation. It is the simple discharge of a solemn debt to one’s forefathers, a debt consisting not only in reverential homage, but in the performance of acts necessary to their support, happiness, and progress onwards in the spiritual world. A man’s deceased relatives, for at least three generations, are among his cherished divinities, and must be honouredby daily offerings and adoration, or a nemesis of some kind is certain to overtake his living family. The object of a Hindu funeral is nothing less than the investiture of the departed spirit with an intermediate gross body—a peculiar frame interposed, as it were parenthetically, between the terrestrial gross body, which has just been destroyed by fire, and the new terrestrial body, which it is compelled to ultimately assume. The creation of such an intervenient frame, composed of gross elements, though less gross than those of earth, becomes necessary, because the individualised spirit of man, after the cremation of the terrestrial body, has nothing left to withhold it from re-absorption into the universal soul, except its incombustible subtle body, which, as composed of the subtle elements, is not only proof against the fire of the funeral pile, but is incapable of any sensations in the temporary heaven, or temporary hell, through one or other of which every separate human spirit is forced to pass before returning to earth, and becoming re-invested with a terrestrial gross body.”When a Brāhman is on the point of death, he is removed from his bed, and laid on the floor. If there is any fear of the day being a danishtapanchami (inauspicious), the dying man is taken out of the house, and placed in the court-yard or pial (raised verandah). Some prayers are uttered, and a cow is presented (gōdhanam). These are intended to render the passage of life through the various parts of the body as easy as possible. The spirit is supposed to escape through one of the nine orifices of the body, according to the character of the individual concerned. That of a good man leaves the body through the brahmarandhra (top of the skull), and that of a bad man through the anus. Immediately after death, the body is washed, religious marks are made onthe forehead, and parched paddy and betel are scattered over and around it by the son. As a Brāhman is supposed always to have his fire with him, the sacred fire is lighted. At this stage, certain purificatory ceremonies are performed, if death has taken place on a day or hour of evil omen, or at midnight. Next, a little cooked rice is cooked in a new earthen pot, and a new cloth is thrown over the corpse, which is roused by the recitation of mantrams. Four bearers, to each of whom dharbha grass is given in token of his office, are selected to carry the corpse to the burning-ground. The eldest son, who is the funeral celebrant, and his brothers are shaved. On ordinary occasions, brothers should not be shaved on the same day, as this would be inauspicious. They are only shaved on the same day on the occasion of the death of their father or mother. The widow of the deceased, and female relations, go three times round the corpse, before it is placed on the bier. Very often, at this stage, all the women present set up a loud lamentation, and repeat the death songs.92If the dead person was a respected elder, special professional women, trained as mourners, are engaged. I am informed that, in the Coimbatore district, and amongst the Sathyamangalam Brahacharanams, there are certain widows who are professional mourners. As soon as they hear of the death of an elder, they repair to the house, and worry the bereaved family into engaging them for a small fee. The space, which intervenes between the dead man’s house and the burning-ground, is divided into four parts. When the end of the first of these is reached, the corpse is placed on the ground, and the sons and nephews go round it, repeating mantrams. They untie their kudumis(hair knot), leaving part thereof loose, tie up the rest into a small bunch, and keep on slapping their thighs. [When children at play have their kudumi partially tied, and slap their thighs, they are invariably scolded, owing to the association with funerals.] A little cooked rice is offered to the path as a pathi bali (wayside offering), to propitiate evil spirits, or bhūthas. The same ceremonial should, strictly speaking, be performed at two other spots, but now-a-days it is the custom to place the corpse on the ground near the funeral pyre, moving its position three times, while the circumambulation and pathi bali are gone through only once. As soon as the corpse has reached the spot where the pyre is, the celebrant of the rites sprinkles water thereon, and throws a quarter of an anna on it as the equivalent of purchase of the ground for cremation. The sacred fire is lighted, and the right palm of the corpse is touched with a gold coin. The nine orifices of the body are then smeared with ghī, and rice is thrown over the corpse, and placed in its mouth. The son takes a burning brand from the sacred fire, lights the pyre, and looks at the sun. He then carries a pot filled with water, having a hole at the bottom through which the water trickles out, on his shoulders three times round the corpse, and, at the end of the third round, throws it down. Then he, and all the relations of the deceased, squat on the ground, facing east, take up some dharbha grass, and, cutting it into small fragments with their nails, scatter them in the air, while repeating some Vēdic verses, which are chanted very loudly and slowly, especially at the funeral of a respected elder. The celebrant then pours a little water on a stone, and sprinkles himself with it. This is also done by the other relations, and they pass beneath a bundle of dharbha grass and twigs ofFicus glomerataheld by the purōhit (officiatingpriest), and gaze for a moment at the sun. Once more they sprinkle themselves with water, and proceed to a tank, where they bathe. When they return home, two rites, called nagna (naked) srādh, and pāshāna sthāpanam (stone-fixing), are celebrated. The disembodied spirit is supposed to be naked after the body has been cremated. To clothe it, offerings of water, with balls of cooked rice, are made, and a cloth, lamp, and money are given to a Brāhman. Then two stones are set up, one in the house and the other on the bank of a tank, to represent the spirit of the deceased. For ten days, libations of water mixed with gingelly seeds, called tīlothakam, and a ball of cooked rice, must be offered to the stones. The ball of rice is left for crows to eat. The number of libations must be seventy-five, commencing with three on the first day, and increasing the number daily by one. In addition, three further libations are made daily by dipping a piece of cloth from the winding-sheet, and rinsing it over the stone (vasothakam). On the day after cremation, the relations assemble at the burning-ground, and the son, after extinguishing the burning embers, removes the fragments of bones from the ashes. The ceremony is called sanchyanam (gathering). Cooked food is offered. The bones are thrown into some sacred river, or buried in the ground. On the tenth day after death, a large quantity of cooked rice (prabhūthabali) is offered to the spirit of the dead person, which is believed to grow very hungry on that day. The food is heaped up on plantain leaves, and all the near relations go round them, crying and beating their breasts. It is mostly females who perform this rite, males standing aloof. The food is taken to a tank, and the widow, decorated and dressed up, is conducted thither. The food is thrown into the water, and, if the widow is an elderlyorthodox woman, her tāli is removed. On the same day, her head is clean shaved. A widow is not allowed to adorn herself with jewels and finery except on this day, when all her close relations come and see her. If this is not done, pregnant women may not see her for a year. All the agnates should be present on the tenth day, and perform tharpana (oblations of water). Until this day they are under pollution, and, after prabhūthabali, they bathe, and hōmam is performed. Some ashes from the sacred fire are mixed with ghī, and a mark is made on the foreheads of those who are under pollution, to remove it. During the period of pollution, a Sri Vaishnava will have only a white mark without the red streak on his forehead; a Mādhva will not have the black dot; and Smarthas avoid having marks altogether. The tenth day ceremony is called Dasāham. On the eleventh day, a ceremony called Ēkodishtam (eleventh day ceremony) is performed. A Brāhman is seated to represent the prētha or dead person, and fed after going through srādh rites. As a rule, the man is a close relation of the deceased. But, amongst certain classes of Brāhmans, an outsider is engaged, and well remunerated. On the twelfth day, the Sapindikaranam (sapinda, kinsman) ceremony, which is just like the ordinary srādh, is performed. At the close thereof, six balls of cooked rice are offered to three ancestors, male and female (three balls for males, and three for females). These balls are arranged in two rows, with a space between them. An elongated mass of food is placed between the rows, and divided with blades of dharbha grass into three portions, which are arranged close to the balls of rice. This is regarded as uniting the dead man with the pitris (ancestors). A cow is usually presented just before the union takes place, and the giftis believed to render the crossing of the river Vaitarani (river of death) easy for the departed soul. The Sapindikaranam is a very important ceremony. When there is a dispute concerning division of property on the death of an individual, the ceremony is not performed until the parties come to an agreement. For instance, if a married man dies without issue, and his widow’s brothers-in-law cannot come to terms as regards the partition of the property, the widow may refuse to allow the performance of the ceremony. The Sapindikaranam should, according to the shāstras, be performed a year after death,i.e., on the completion of all the Māsikas (monthly srādhs). But, at the present day, a ceremony called Shōdasam (the sixteen) is performed just before the Sapindikaranam on the twelfth day. In the course of the year, twelve monthly and four quarterly srādhs should be performed. The Shōdasam ceremony, which is carried out in lieu thereof, consists in giving presents of money and vessels to sixteen Brāhmans. On the twelfth day, a feast is held, and domestic worship is carried out on a large scale. At the close thereof, a slōka called Charma slōka, in praise of the deceased, is composed and repeated by some one versed in Sanskrit. Every month, for a year after a death in a family, srādh should, as indicated, be performed. This corresponds in detail with the annual srādh, which is regularly performed, unless a visit is paid to Gaya, which renders further performance of the rite not obligatory. For the performance of this ceremony by the nearest agnate of the deceased (eldest son or other), three Brāhmans should be called in, to represent respectively Vishnu, the Dēvatas, and the ancestors. Sometimes two Brāhmans are made to suffice, and Vishnu is represented by a sālagrāma stone. In extreme cases, only one Brāhmanassists at the ceremony, the two others being represented by dharbha grass. The sacred fire is lighted, and ghī, a small quantity of raw and cooked rice, and vegetables are offered up in the fire. The Brāhmans then wash their feet, and are fed. Before they enter the space set apart for the meal, water, gingelly, and rice are sprinkled about it, to keep off evil spirits. As soon as the meal is finished, a ball of rice, called vāyasa pindam (crow’s food), is offered to the pithru dēvatas (ancestors of three generations), and thrown to the crows. If they do not eat the rice, the omens are considered to be unfavourable. The Brāhmans receive betel and money in payment for their services. On one occasion my assistant was in camp at Kodaikānal on the Palni hills, the higher altitudes of which are uninhabited by crows, and he had perforce to march down to the plains, in order to perform the annual ceremony for his deceased father. The recurring annual srādh (Pratyābdhika) need not of necessity be performed. It is, however, regarded as an important ceremony, and, should an individual neglect it, he would run the risk of being excommunicated.The rites connected with the dead are based on the Garuda Purāna, according to which the libations of the ten days are said to help the growth of the body of the soul. In this connection, Monier Williams writes as follows:—93“On the first day, the ball (pinda) of rice offered by the eldest son or other near relative nourishes the spirit of the deceased in such a way as to furnish it with a head; on the second day, the offered pinda gives a neck and shoulders; on the third day a heart; on the fourth a back; on the fifth a navel; on the sixth a groinand the parts usually concealed; on the seventh thighs; on the eighth and ninth knees and feet. On the tenth day, the intermediate body is sufficiently formed to produce the sensation of hunger and thirst. Other pindas are therefore put before it, and, on the eleventh and twelfth days, the embodied spirit feeds voraciously on the offerings thus supplied, and so gains strength for its journey to its future abode. Then, on the thirteenth day after death, it is conducted either to heaven or hell. If to the latter, it has need of the most nourishing food, to enable it to bear up against the terrible ordeal which awaits it.”To the Hindu mind, Yama (the god of death) is a hideous god, whose servants are represented as being capable of tormenting the soul of the dead. “No sooner,” writes Monier Williams, “has death occurred, and cremation of the terrestrial body taken place, than Yama’s two messengers (Yama Dūtan), who are waiting near at hand, make themselves visible to the released spirit, which retains its subtle body composed of the subtle elements, and is said to be of the size of a thumb (angustha-mātra). Their aspect is terrific, for they have glaring eyes, hair standing erect, gnashing teeth, crow-black skin, and claw-like nails, and they hold in their hands the awful rod and noose of Yama. Then, as if their appearance in this form were not sufficiently alarming, they proceed to terrify their victim by terrible visions of the torments (yātana) in store for him. They then convey the bound spirit along the road to Yama’s abode. Being led before Yama’s judgment seat, it is confronted with his Registrar or Recorder named Chitra Gupta. This officer stands by Yama’s side, with an open book before him. It is his business to note down all the good and evil deeds ofevery human being born into the world, with the resulting merit (punya) and demerit (pāpa), and to produce a debtor and creditor account properly made up and balanced on the day when that being is brought before Yama. According to the balance on the side of merit or demerit is judgment pronounced. The road by which Yama’s two officers force a wicked man to descend to the regions of torment is described in the first two chapters of the Garuda Purāna. The length of the way is said to be 86,000 leagues (yojanas). The condemned soul, invested with its sensitive body, and made to travel at the rate of 200 leagues a day, finds no shady trees, no resting place, no food, no water. At one time it is scorched by a burning heat equal to that of twelve meridian suns, at another it is pierced by icy cold winds; now its tender frame is rent by thorns; now it is attacked by lions, tigers, savage dogs, venomous serpents, and scorpions. In one place it has to traverse a dense forest, whose leaves are swords; in another it falls into deep pits; in another it is precipitated from precipices; in another it has to walk on the edge of razors; in another on iron spikes. Here it stumbles about helplessly in profound darkness; there it struggles through loathsome mud swarming with leeches; here it toils through burning sand; there its progress is arrested by heaps of red-hot charcoal and stifling smoke. Compelled to pass through every obstacle, however formidable, it next encounters a succession of terrific showers, not of rain, but of live coals, stones, blood, boiling water and filth. Then it has to descend into appalling fissures, or ascend to sickening heights, or lose itself in vast caves, or wade through lakes seething with fœtid ordures. Then midway it has to pass the awful river Vaitarani, one hundred leagues in breadth, of unfathomable depth;flowing with irresistible impetuosity; filled with blood, matter, hair, and bones; infested with huge sharks, crocodiles, and sea monsters; darkened by clouds of hideous vultures and obscene birds of prey. Thousands of condemned spirits stand trembling on the banks, horrified by the prospect before them. Consumed by a raging thirst, they drink the blood which flows at their feet; then, tumbling headlong into the torrent, they are overwhelmed by the rushing waves. Finally, they are hurried down to the lowest depths of hell, and yet not destroyed. Pursued by Yama’s officers, they are dragged away, and made to undergo inconceivable tortures, the detail of which is given with the utmost minuteness in the succeeding chapters of the Garuda Purāna.”The Ahannikams, or daily observances, of a religious Brāhman are very many. Nowadays, Brāhmans who lead a purely religious life are comparatively few, and are mostly found in villages. The daily observances of such are the bath, the performance of the Sandhya service, Brahma yagna, Dēva pūja or Dēvatarchana, Tarpana (oblations of water), Vaisvadēva ceremony, and the reading of Purānas or Ithihāsas. Every orthodox Brāhman is expected to rise at the time called Brahma Muhūrtam in the hour and a half before sunrise. He should then clean his teeth, using as a brush mango leaf, or twigs ofAcacia arabicaor nīm (Melia Azadirachta). He next bathes in a river or tank (pond), standing knee-deep in the water, and repeating the following:—“I am about to perform the morning ablution in this sacred stream (Ganges, Sarasvati, Yamuna, Godāvari, etc.), in the presence of the gods and Brāhmans, with a view to the removal of guilt resulting from act, speech, and thought, from what has been touched and untouched, known and unknown, eaten and not eaten, drunk andnot drunk.” After the bath, he wipes his body with a damp cloth, and puts on his cotton madi cloth, which has been washed and dried. The cloth, washed, wrung, and hung up to dry, should not be touched by anybody. If this should happen prior to the bath, the cloth is polluted, and ceases to be madi. A silk cloth, which cannot be polluted, is substituted for it. The madi or silk cloth should be worn until the close of the morning ceremonies and meal. The man next puts the marks which are characteristic of his sect on the forehead and body, and performs the Sandhya service. This is very important, and is binding on all Brāhmans after the Upanayanam ceremony, though a large number are not particular in observing it. According to the shāstras, the Sandhya should be done in the morning and evening; but in practice there is an additional service at midday. Sandhyāvandhanam means the thanksgiving to God when day and night meet in the morning and evening. The rite commences with the sipping of water (āchamanam) from the hollow of the right palm. This is done three times, while the words Achyuthāyanamaha, Anantāyanamaha, and Govindāyana are repeated. Immediately after sipping, twelve parts of the body are touched with the fingers of the right hand in the following order:—
Indra—Sathakruthu, Vajranam, Sachipathi.Yama—Vaivaswata, Pithrupathi, Dharmarāja.Varuna—Prachethas, Apāmpathi, Swarūpinam.Sōman—Indum, Nisākaram, Ōshadīsam.Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.Nine kinds of grains soaked in water are placed in the seed-pans. These grains areDolichos Lablab(two varieties),Phaseolus Mungo(two varieties),Oryza sativa,Cicer Arietinum,Cajanus indicus,Eleusine Coracana, andVigna Catiang. The tying of the wrist-thread (pratisaram) is next proceeded with. Two cotton threads are laid on a vessel representing Varuna. After the recitation of Vēdic verses, the bridegroom takes one of the threads, and, dipping it in turmeric paste, holds it with his left thumb, smears some of the paste on it with his right thumb and forefinger, and ties it on the left wrist of the bride. The purōhit ties the other thread on the right wrist of the bridegroom, who, facing the assembly, says “I am going to take the bride.” He then recites the following Vēdic verse:—“Go to my future father-in-law with due precautions, and mingle with the members of his family. This marriage is sure to be pleasing to Indra, because he gets oblations of food, etc., after the marriage. May your path be smooth and free from thorns. May Sūrya and Bhaga promote our dhāmpathyam (companionship).”The purōhit again proclaims the marriage, and the gōtras and names of three generations are repeated. Those assembled then bless the couple. The bride’s father says that he is prepared to give his daughter in marriage to the bridegroom, who states that he accepts her. The father of the bride washes the feet of the bridegroom placed on a tray with milk and water. The bridegroom then washes the feet of the bride’s father. The bride sits in her father’s lap, and her mother stands at her side. The father, repeating the names of the bridegroom’s ancestors for three generations, saysthat he is giving his daughter to him. He places the hand of the bride on that of the bridegroom, and both he and the bride’s mother pour water over the united hands of the contracting couple. The following slōka is repeated:—“I am giving you a virgin decorated with jewels, to enable me to obtain religious merit.” The bridegroom takes the bride by the hand, and both take their seats in front of the sacred fire. This part of the ceremonial is called dhāre (pouring of water). Much importance is attached to it by Tulu Brāhmans. Among Non-Brāhman castes in South Canara, it forms the binding portion of the marriage ceremony. After the pouring of ghī as an oblation, the bridegroom throws down a few twigs of dharbha grass, and repeats the formula:—“Oh! dharbha, thou art capable of giving royal powers, and the teacher’s seat. May I not be separated from thee.” Then the bride’s father, giving a vessel of water, says “Here is Arghya water.” The bridegroom receives it with the formula:—“May this water destroy my enemies. May brilliancy, energy, strength, life, renown, glory, splendour, and power dwell in me.” Once again the bride’s father washes the feet of the bridegroom, who salutes his father-in-law, saying “Oh! water, unite me with fame, splendour, and milk. Make me beloved by all creatures, the lord of cattle. May fame, heroism, and energy dwell in me.” The bride’s father pours some water from a vessel over the hand of the bridegroom, who says “To the ocean I send you, the imperishable waters; go back to your source. May I not suffer loss in my offspring. May my sap not be shed.” A mixture of honey, plantain fruit, and ghī, is given to the bridegroom by the bride’s father with the words “Ayam Madhuparko” (honey mixture). Receiving it, the bridegroom mutters thefollowing:—“What is the honeyed, highest form of honey which consists in the enjoyment of food; by that honeyed highest form of honey, may I become highest, honeyed, an enjoyer of food.” He partakes three times of the mixture, and says:—“I eat thee for the sake of brilliancy, luck, glory, power, and the enjoyment of food.” Then the bride’s father gives a cocoanut to the bridegroom, saying “Gauhu” (cow). The bridegroom receives it with the words “Oh! cow, destroy my sin, and that of my father-in-law.” According to the Grihya Sūtras, a cow should be presented to the bridegroom, to be cooked or preserved. Next a plantain fruit is given to the bridegroom, who, after eating a small portion of it, hands it to the bride. The bride sits on a heap or bundle of paddy (unhusked rice), and the bridegroom says “Oh! Varuna, bless her with wealth. May there be no ill-feeling between herself, her brothers and sisters. Oh! Brihaspathi, bless her that she may not lose her husband. Oh! Indra, bless her to be fertile. Oh! Savitha, bless her that she may be happy in all respects. Oh! girl, be gentle-eyed and friendly to me. Let your look be of such a nature as not to kill your husband. Be kind to me, and to my brothers.88May you shine with lustre, and be of good repute. Live long, and bear living children.” The pair are then seated, and the bridegroom, taking a blade of dharbha grass, passes it between the eyebrows of the bride, and throws it behind her, saying “With this dharbha grass I remove the evil influence of any bad mark thou mayst possess, which is likely to cause widowhood.” [Certain marks or curls (suli) forebode prosperity, and others misery to a family into which a girl entersby marriage. And, when a wealthy Hindu meditates purchasing a horse, he looks to the presence or absence of certain marks on particular parts of the body, and thereby forms a judgment of the temper and qualities of the animal.] The bridegroom then repeats the following:—“Now they ought to rejoice, and not cry. They have arranged our union to bring happiness to both of us. In view of the happiness we are to enjoy hereafter, they should be glad. This is a fitting occasion for rejoicing.” Four Brāhmans next bring water, and the bridegroom receives it, saying:—“May the evil qualities of this water disappear; may it increase. Let the Brāhmans bring water for the bath, and may it bring long life and children to her.” A bundle of paddy, or a basket filled therewith, is brought to the pandal. The bride sits on the paddy, and a ring of dharbha grass is placed on her head. The bridegroom repeats the formula “Blessed by the Sūrya, sit round the sacred fire, and look at the dharbha ring, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law.” A yoke is then brought, one end of which is placed on the head of the bride above the ring, and the following formula is repeated:—“Oh! Indra, cleanse and purify this girl, just as you did in the case of Abhala, by pouring water through three holes before marrying her.” Abhala was an ugly woman, who wished to marry Indra. To attain this end, she did penance for a long time, and, meeting Indra, requested him to fulfil her desire. Indra made her his wife, after transforming her into a beautiful woman by sprinkling water over her through the holes in the wheels of the car which was his vehicle. Into the hole of the yoke a gold coin, or the tāli (marriage badge), is dropped, with the words “May this gold prove a blessing to you. May the yoke, the hole of the yoke, bring happinessto you. May we be blessed to unite your body with mine.” Then the bridegroom, sprinkling water over the yoke and coin, says:—“May you become purified by the sun through this purificatory water. May this water, which is the cause of thunder and lightning, bring happiness to you. Oh! girl, may this water give you health and long life. A new and costly silk cloth (kūrai), purchased by the bridegroom, is given to the bride, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! Indra, listen to my prayers; accept them, and fulfil my desires.” The bride puts on the cloth, with the assistance of the bridegroom’s sister, and sits on her father’s lap. The bridegroom, taking up the tāli, ties it by the string on the bride’s neck, saying:—“Oh! girl, I am tying the tāli to secure religious merit.” This is not a Vēdic verse, and this part of the ceremony is not included in the Grihya Sūtras. All the Brāhmans assembled bless the couple by throwing rice over their heads. A dharbha waist-cord is passed round the waist of the bride, and the following is repeated:—“This girl is gazing at Agni, wishing for health, wealth, strength and children. I am binding her for her good.” The bridegroom then holds the hand of the bride, and both go to the sacred fire, where the former says:—“Let Sūrya lead to Agni, and may you obtain permission from the Aswins to do so. Go with me to my house. Be my wife, and the mistress of my house. Instruct and help me in the performance of sacrifices.” After offerings of ghī in the sacred fire, the bridegroom says:—“Sōma was your husband; Gandharva knew thee next; Agni was your third husband. I, son of man, am your fourth husband. Sōma gave you to Gandharva, and Gandharva gave you to Agni, who gave to me with progeny and wealth.” The bridegroom takes hold of the bride’sright wrist, and, pressing on the fingers, passes his hand over the united fingers three times. This is called Pānigrahanam. To the Nambūtiri Brāhman this is a very important item, being the binding part of the marriage ceremonial. Some years ago, at a village near Chalakkudi in the Cochin State, a Nambūtiri refused to accept a girl as his bride, because the purōhit inadvertently grasped her fingers, to show how it ought to be done at the time of the marriage ceremony. The purōhit had to marry the girl himself. The next item in the ceremonial is Sapthapathi, or the taking of the seven steps. This is considered as the most binding portion thereof. The bridegroom lifts the left foot of the bride seven times, repeating the following:—“One step for sap, may Vishnu go after thee. Two steps for juice, may Vishnu go after thee. Three steps for vows, may Vishnu go after thee. Four steps for comfort, may Vishnu go after thee. Five steps for cattle, may Vishnu go after thee. Six steps for the prospering of wealth, may Vishnu go after thee. Seven steps for the seven-fold hōtriship,89may Vishnu go after thee. With seven steps we have become companions. May I attain to friendship with thee. May I not be separated from thy friendship. Mayst thou not be separated from my friendship. Let us be united; let us always take counsel together with good hearts and mutual love. May we grow in strength and prosperity together. Now we are one in minds, deeds, and desires. Thou art Rik, I am Sāmam; I am the sky, thou art the earth; I am the semen, thou art the bearer; I am the mind, thou art the tongue. Follow me faithfully, that we may have wealth and children together. Come thou of sweetspeech.” The bridegroom then does hōmam, repeating the following:—“We are offering oblations to Sōma, Gandharva, and Agni. This girl has just passed her virginity. Make her leave her father’s house. Bless her to remain fixed in her husband’s house. May she have a good son by your blessing. Cause her to beget ten children, and I shall be the eleventh child. Oh! Agni, bless her with children, and make them long-lived. Oh! Varuna, I pray to you for the same thing. May this woman be freed from the sorrow arising out of sterility, and be blessed by Garhapathyāgni. May she have a number of children in her, and become the mother of many living children. Oh! girl, may your house never know lamentations during nights caused by deaths. May you live long and happy with your husband and children. May the sky protect thy back; may Vāyu strengthen your thighs; and the Aswins your breast. May Savitri look after thy suckling sons. Until the garment is put on, may Brihaspathi guard them, and the Viswedēvas afterwards. Oh! Varuna, make me strong and healthy. Do not steal away years from our ages. All those who offer oblations pray for the same. Oh! you all-pervading Agni, pacify Varuna; you who blaze forth into flames to receive oblations, be friendly towards us. Be near us, and protect us. Receive, and be satisfied with our oblations. Make us prosperous. We are always thinking of you. Take our oblations to the several dēvatas, and give us medicine.” The bride next treads on a stone, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! girl, tread on this stone. Be firm like it. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm. Overcome thy enemies.” Some fried paddy is put in the sacred fire, and the bridegroom repeats the following:—“Oh! Agni, I am offering the fried grains, so that this girl may beblessed with long life. Oh! Agni, give me my wife with children, just as in olden days you were given Sūryayi with wealth. Oh! Agni, bless my wife with lustre and longevity. Also bless her husband with long life, that she may live happily. Oh! Agni, help us to overcome our enemies.” Again the bride treads on the stone, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! girl, tread on this stone, and be firm like it. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm. Overcome thy enemies.” This is followed by the offering of fried grain with the following formula:—“The virgins prayed to Sūrya and Agni to secure husbands, and they were at once granted their boons. Such an Agni is now being propitiated by offerings of fried paddy. Let him make the bride leave her father’s house.” For the third time, the bride treads on the stone, and fried paddy is offered with the formula:—“Oh! Agni, thou art the giver of life, and receiver of oblations. Oblations of ghī are now offered to you. Bless the pair to be of one mind.” The dharbha girdle is removed from the bride’s waist, with the verse: “I am loosening you from the bondage of Varuna. I am now removing the thread with which Sūrya bound you.” Those assembled then disperse. Towards evening, Brāhmans again assemble, and the bride and bridegroom sit before the sacred fire, while the former repeat several Vēdic riks. They are supposed to start for their home, driving in a carriage, and the verses repeated have reference to the chariot, horses, boats, etc. After ghī has been poured into the fire, a child, who should be a male who has not lost brothers or sisters, is seated in the lap of the bride, and the bridegroom says:—“May cows, horses, men, and wealth, increase in this house. Let this child occupy your lap, just as the Sōma creeper which gives strengthto the Dēvatas occupies the regions of the stars.” Giving some plantain fruit to the child, the bridegroom says:—“Oh! fruits, ye bear seeds. May my wife bear seeds likewise by your blessing.” Then the pair are shown Druva and Arundathi (the pole star and Ursa major), which are worshipped with the words:—“The seven Rishis who have led to firmness, she, Arundathi, who stands first among the six Krithikas (Pleiads), may she the eighth one, who leads the conjunction of the (moon with the) six Krithikas, the first (among conjunctions) shine upon us. Firm dwelling, firm origin; the firm one art thou, standing on the side of firmness. Thou art the pillar of the stars. Thus protect me against my adversaries.” They then proceed to perform the Sthālipāka ceremony, in which the bride should cook some rice, which the bridegroom offers as an oblation in the sacred fire. In practice, however, a little food is brought, and placed in the fire without being cooked. The purōhit decorates aFicusstick with dharbha grass, and gives it to the bridegroom. It is placed in the roof, or somewhere within the house, near the seed-pans. [According to the Grihya Sūtras, the couple ought to occupy the same mat, with the stick between them. This is not in vogue amongst several sections of Brāhmans. The Mysore Carnatakas, Mandya Aiyangars, and Shivallis, observe a kindred ceremony. Amongst the Mandyas, for example, on the fourth night of the marriage rites, the bridal couple occupy the same mat for a short time, and a stick is placed between them. The Pajamadmē, or mat marriage, amongst the Shivalli Brāhmans, evidently refers to this custom.] On the second and third days of the marriage ceremonies, hōmams are performed in the morning and evening, and the nalagu ceremony isperformed. In this, the couple are seated on two planks covered with mats and cloth, amidst a large number of women assembled within the pandal. In front of them, betel leaves, areca nuts, fruits, flowers, and turmeric paste are placed in a tray. The women sing songs which they have learnt from childhood, and the bride also sings the praises of the bridegroom. Taking a little of the turmeric paste rendered red by the addition of chunam (lime), she makes marks by drawing lines over the feet (nalangu idal). The ceremony closes with the waving of ārāthi (water coloured red with turmeric and chunam), and the distribution of pān-supāri (betel leaves and areca nuts). The waving is done by two women, who sing appropriate songs. On the fourth day, Brāhmans assemble, and the pair are seated in their midst. After the recitation of Vēdic verses, the contracting couple are blessed. A small quantity of turmeric paste, reddened by the addition of chunam, is mixed with ghī, and smeared over the shoulders of the pair, and a mark is made on their foreheads. This is called Pachchai Kalyānam, and is peculiar to Tamil Brāhmans, both Smarthas and Vaishnavas. Amongst Tamil Brāhmans, prominence is given to the maternal uncles on the fourth day. The bride and bridegroom are carried astride on the shoulders of their uncles, who dance to the strains of a band. When they meet, the couple exchange garlands (malaimāththal). Towards evening, a procession is got up at the expense of the maternal uncle of the bride, and is hence called Ammān Kōlam. The bride is dressed up as a boy, and another girl is dressed up to represent the bride. They are taken in procession through the streets, and, on their return, the pseudo-bridegroom is made to speak to the real bridegroom in somewhat insolent tones, and some mock play isindulged in. The real bridegroom is addressed as if he was the syce (groom) or gumastha (clerk) of the pseudo-bridegroom, and is sometimes treated as a thief, and judgment passed on him by the latter. Among Sri Vaishnavas, after the Pachchai smearing ceremony, the bridal couple roll a cocoanut to and fro across the dais, and the assembled Brāhmans chant stanzas in Tamil composed by a Vaishnava lady named Āndal, an avatar of Lakshmi, who dedicated herself to Vishnu. In these stanzas, she narrates to her attendants the dream, in which she went through the marriage ceremony after her dedication to the god. Pān-supāri, of which a little, together with some money, is set apart for Āndal, is then distributed to all present. A large crowd generally assembles, as it is believed that the chanting of Āndal’s srisukthi (praise of Lakshmi) brings a general blessing. The family priest calls out the names and gōtras of those who have become related to the bride and bridegroom through their marriage. As each person’s name is called out, he or she is supposed to make a present of cloths, money, etc., to the bridegroom or bride. [The Telugu and Carnataka Brāhmans, instead of the Pachchai Kalyānam, perform a ceremony called Nāgavali on the fourth or fifth day. Thirty-two lights and two vessels, representing Siva and Parvathi, are arranged in the form of a square. Unbleached thread, soaked in turmeric paste, is passed round the square, and tied to the pandal. The bridal couple sit in front of the square, and, after doing pūja (worship), cut the thread, and take their seats within the square. The bridegroom ties a tāli of black glass beads on the bride’s neck, in the presence of 33 crores (330 millions) of gods, represented by a number of small pots arranged round the square. Close to the pots are the figures of two elephants,designed in rice grains and salt respectively. After going round the pots, the couple separate, and the bridegroom stands by the salt elephant, and the bride by the other. They then talk about the money value of the two animals, and an altercation takes place, during which they again go round the pots, and stand, the bridegroom near the rice elephant, and the bride near the salt one. The bargaining as to the price of the animals is renewed, and the couple go round the pots once more. This ceremony is followed by a burlesque of domestic life. The bride is presented with two wooden dolls from Tirupati, and told to make a cradle out of the bridegroom’s turmeric-coloured cloth, which he wore on the tāli-tying day. The couple converse on domestic matters, and the bridegroom asks the bride to attend to her household affairs, so that he may go to his duties. She pleads her inability to do so because of the children, and asks him to take charge of them. She then shows the babies (dolls) to all present, and a good deal of fun is made out of the incident. The bride, with her mother standing by her side near two empty chairs, is then introduced to her new relations by marriage, who sit in pairs on the chairs, and make presents of pān-supāri and turmeric.] On the fifth day of the marriage ceremonies, before dawn, the bridal couple are seated on the dais, and the Gandharva stick is removed, with the words:—“Oh! Visvāwasu Gandharva, I pray to you to make this girl my wife. Unite her with me. Leave her, and seek another.” The bridegroom then performs hōmams. A coin is placed on the bride’s head, and a little ghī put thereon. Gazing at the bridegroom, she says:—“With a loving heart I regard thee who knowest my heart. Thou art radiant with tapas (penance). Fill me with a child, and this house of ourswith wealth. Thou art desirous of a son. Thus shalt thou reproduce thyself.” Looking at the bride, the bridegroom then says:—“I see thee radiant and eager to be filled with child by me. Thou art in thy youth now. Enjoy me, therefore, while I am over you, and so reproduce thyself, being desirous of a son.” Touching the bride’s breasts with his ring-finger, and then touching his heart, he repeats the following:—“May the Viswe gods unite our hearts; may the water unite our hearts; may Vāyu and Brahma unite our hearts; and may Sarasvati teach us both conversation appropriate to this occasion of our intercourse.” More Vēdic riks are then recited, as follows:—“Thou Prajāpathi, enter my body that I may have vigour during this act; so thou Thvastri, who fashionest forms with Vishnu and other gods; so thou Indra, who grantest boons with thy friends the Viswedēvas, by thy blessing may we have many sons. May Vishnu make thy womb ready; may Thvashtri frame the shape (of the child); may Prajāpathi pour forth (the sperm); may Dhatri give thee conception. Give conception, Sinivāli; give conception, Sarasvati. May the two Asvins, wreathed with lotus, give conception to thee. The embryo which the two Asvins produce with their golden kindling sticks, that embryo we call into thy womb, that thou mayst give birth to it after ten months. As the earth is pregnant with Agni, as the heaven is pregnant with Indra, as Vāyu dwells in the womb of the regions (of the earth), thus I place an embryo in thy womb. Open thy womb; take in the sperm. May a male child, an embryo, be begotten in the womb. The mother bears him ten months, may he be born, the most valiant of his kin. May a male embryo enter the womb, as an arrow the quiver; may a man be born here, thy son, after tenmonths. I do with thee (the work) that is sacred to Prajāpathi; may an embryo enter the womb. May a child be born without deficiency, with all its limbs, not blind, not lame, not sucked out by Pisāchas” (devils). The marriage is brought to a close, after this recitation, with the presentation of fruits, etc., to all the Brāhmans assembled, and to all relations, children included. The bridegroom chews betel for the first time on this day. The wrist-threads are removed, and the seed-pans containing the seedlings, which have been worshipped daily, are taken in procession to a tank (pond), into which the seedlings are thrown.It will be noticed that prayers for male issue are of frequent occurrence during the marriage ceremonial. In Sanskrit works, Putra (son) is defined as one who delivers a parent from a hell called put. It is generally believed that the welfare of a parent’s soul depends on the performance of srādh (memorial services) by his son. It was laid down by Manu that a man is perfect, when he consists of three—himself, his wife, and his son. In the Rig Vēda it is stated that “when a father sees the face of a living son, he pays a debt in him, and gains immortality. The pleasure which a father has in his son exceeds all other enjoyments. His wife is a friend, his daughter an object of companion, his son shines as his light in the highest world.” The following story of a certain pious man of ascetical temperament, who determined to shirk the religious duty of taking a wife, is narrated by Monier Williams:—“Quietly skipping over the second prescribed period of life, during which he ought to have been a householder (grihastha), he entered at once upon the third period—that is to say, he became an ascetic, abjured all female society, and retired to the woods. Wandering about one day,absorbed in meditation, he was startled by an extraordinary spectacle. He saw before him a deep and apparently bottomless pit. Around its edge some unhappy men were hanging suspended by ropes of grass, at which here and there a rat was nibbling. On asking their history, he discovered to his horror that they were his own ancestors compelled to hang in this unpleasant manner, and doomed eventually to fall into the abyss, unless he went back into the world, did his duty like a man, married a suitable wife, and had a son, who would be able to release them from their critical predicament.” This legend is recorded in detail in the Mahābhārata.A curious mock marriage ceremony is celebrated amongst Brāhmans when an individual marries a third wife. It is believed that a third marriage is very inauspicious, and that the bride will become a widow. To prevent this mishap, the man is made to marry the arka plant (Calotropis gigantea), and the real marriage thus becomes the fourth. If this ceremony is carried on in orthodox fashion, it is generally celebrated on some Sunday or Monday, when the constellation Astham is visible. The bridegroom and a Brāhman priest, accompanied by a third Brāhman, repair to a spot where the arka plant (a very common weed) is growing. The plant is decorated with a cloth and a piece of string, and symbolised into the sun. The bridegroom then invokes it thus:—“Oh! master of three lōks, Oh! the seven-horsed, Oh! Rāvi, avert the evils of the third marriage.” Next the plant is addressed with the words:—“You are the oldest of the plants of this world. Brahma created you to save such of us as have to marry a third time, so please become my wife.” The Brāhman who accompanies the bridegroom becomes his father-in-law for the moment, and says to him:—“I give you in marriageAditya’s great grand-daughter, Savi’s grand-daughter, and my daughter Arkakanya.” All the ceremonies, such as making hōmam, tāli-tying, etc., are performed as at a regular marriage, and, after the recitation of a few sentences from the Vēdas, the plant is cut down. “The plant,” Mr. A. Srinivasan writes,90“is named arka after the sun. When the car of the sun turns towards the north, every Hindu applies the leaves of this plant to his head before he bathes, in honour of the event. The plant is, besides, believed to be a willing scapegoat to others’ ills. Oil and ghī applied to the head of the victim of persistent illness has only to be transferred to this plant, when it withers and saves the man, even as Baber is said to have saved his son. The poet Kalidāsa describes sweet Sakuntala, born of a shaggy dweller of the forest, as a garland of jasmine thrown on an arka plant. ‘May the arka grow luxuriant in your house’ is the commonest form of curse. ‘Be thou belaboured with arka leaves’ is familiar in the mouths of reprimanding mothers. Adulterers were, half a century ago, seated on an ass, face to the tail, and marched through the village. The public disgrace was enhanced by placing a garland of the despised arka leaves on their head. [Uppiliyan women convicted of immorality are said to be garlanded with arka flowers, and made to carry a basket of mud round the village.] A Telugu proverb asks ‘Does the bee ever seek the arka flower?’ The reasons for the ill-repute that this plant suffers from are not at all clear. The fact that it has a partiality for wastes has evidently brought on its devoted head the dismal associations of desolation, but there would seem to be more deep-seated hatred to the plant than has beenexplained.” A Tamil proverb has it that he who crushes the bud of the arka earns merit. Some Telugu and Canarese Brāhmans, who follow the Yajur Vēda or Rig Vēda, consider the arka plant as sacred, and use the leaves thereof during the nāndhi (ancestor invoking) ceremony, which is performed as one of the marriage rites. Two or three arka leaves, with betel leaves and areca nuts, are tied to the cloth, which is attached to a stick as representing the ancestors (pithrus). With some the arka leaves are replaced by leaves ofPongamia glabra. On rathasapthami day (the seventh day after the new moon in the month Āvani), an orthodox Hindu should bathe his head and shoulders with arka leaves in propitiation of Sūrya (the sun). Brāhmans who follow the Sāma Vēda, during the annual upākarmam ceremony, make use of arka leaves and flowers in worshipping the Rishis and Pithrus. On the upākarmam day, the Sāma Vēdis invoke their sixty-two Rishis and the last three ancestors, who are represented by sixty-five clay balls placed on arka leaves. To them are offered arka flowers, fruits of karai-chedi (Canthium parviflorum), and nāval (Eugenia Jambolana). In addition to this worship, they perform the Rishi and Pithru tharpanam by offering water, gingelly (Sesamum indicum) seeds, and rice. The celebrant, prior to dipping his hand into the water, places in his hands two arka leaves, gingelly, and rice. The juice of the arka plant is a favourite agent in the hands of suicides. Among the Tangalān Paraiyans, if a young man dies before he is married, a ceremony called kannikazhithal (removing bachelorhood) is performed. Before the corpse is laid on the bier, a garland of arka flowers is placed round its neck, and balls of mud from a gutter are laid on the head, knees, and other parts of the body. In some places a variant of theceremony consists in the erection of a mimic marriage booth, which is covered with leaves of the arka plant, flowers of which are also placed round the neck as a garland. At a form of marriage called rambha or kathali (plantain) marriage, the arka plant is replaced by a plantain tree (Musa). It is performed by those who happen to be eldest brothers, and who are incapable of getting married, so as to give a chance to younger brothers, who are not allowed to marry unless the elder brother or brothers are already married.At the present day, many Hindus disregard certain ceremonies, in the celebration of which their forefathers were most scrupulous. Even the daily ceremonial ablutions, which are all important to a Brāhman from a shāstraic point of view, are now neglected by a large majority, and the prayers (mantrams), which should be chanted during their performance, are forgotten. But no Brāhman, orthodox or unorthodox, dares to abandon the death ceremonial, and annual srādh (memorial rites). A Brāhman beggar, when soliciting alms, invariably pleads that he has to perform his father or mother’s srādh, or upanayanam (thread ceremony) of his children, and he rarely goes away empty-handed. “The constant periodical performance,” Monier Williams writes,91“of commemorative obsequies is regarded in the light of a positive and peremptory obligation. It is the simple discharge of a solemn debt to one’s forefathers, a debt consisting not only in reverential homage, but in the performance of acts necessary to their support, happiness, and progress onwards in the spiritual world. A man’s deceased relatives, for at least three generations, are among his cherished divinities, and must be honouredby daily offerings and adoration, or a nemesis of some kind is certain to overtake his living family. The object of a Hindu funeral is nothing less than the investiture of the departed spirit with an intermediate gross body—a peculiar frame interposed, as it were parenthetically, between the terrestrial gross body, which has just been destroyed by fire, and the new terrestrial body, which it is compelled to ultimately assume. The creation of such an intervenient frame, composed of gross elements, though less gross than those of earth, becomes necessary, because the individualised spirit of man, after the cremation of the terrestrial body, has nothing left to withhold it from re-absorption into the universal soul, except its incombustible subtle body, which, as composed of the subtle elements, is not only proof against the fire of the funeral pile, but is incapable of any sensations in the temporary heaven, or temporary hell, through one or other of which every separate human spirit is forced to pass before returning to earth, and becoming re-invested with a terrestrial gross body.”When a Brāhman is on the point of death, he is removed from his bed, and laid on the floor. If there is any fear of the day being a danishtapanchami (inauspicious), the dying man is taken out of the house, and placed in the court-yard or pial (raised verandah). Some prayers are uttered, and a cow is presented (gōdhanam). These are intended to render the passage of life through the various parts of the body as easy as possible. The spirit is supposed to escape through one of the nine orifices of the body, according to the character of the individual concerned. That of a good man leaves the body through the brahmarandhra (top of the skull), and that of a bad man through the anus. Immediately after death, the body is washed, religious marks are made onthe forehead, and parched paddy and betel are scattered over and around it by the son. As a Brāhman is supposed always to have his fire with him, the sacred fire is lighted. At this stage, certain purificatory ceremonies are performed, if death has taken place on a day or hour of evil omen, or at midnight. Next, a little cooked rice is cooked in a new earthen pot, and a new cloth is thrown over the corpse, which is roused by the recitation of mantrams. Four bearers, to each of whom dharbha grass is given in token of his office, are selected to carry the corpse to the burning-ground. The eldest son, who is the funeral celebrant, and his brothers are shaved. On ordinary occasions, brothers should not be shaved on the same day, as this would be inauspicious. They are only shaved on the same day on the occasion of the death of their father or mother. The widow of the deceased, and female relations, go three times round the corpse, before it is placed on the bier. Very often, at this stage, all the women present set up a loud lamentation, and repeat the death songs.92If the dead person was a respected elder, special professional women, trained as mourners, are engaged. I am informed that, in the Coimbatore district, and amongst the Sathyamangalam Brahacharanams, there are certain widows who are professional mourners. As soon as they hear of the death of an elder, they repair to the house, and worry the bereaved family into engaging them for a small fee. The space, which intervenes between the dead man’s house and the burning-ground, is divided into four parts. When the end of the first of these is reached, the corpse is placed on the ground, and the sons and nephews go round it, repeating mantrams. They untie their kudumis(hair knot), leaving part thereof loose, tie up the rest into a small bunch, and keep on slapping their thighs. [When children at play have their kudumi partially tied, and slap their thighs, they are invariably scolded, owing to the association with funerals.] A little cooked rice is offered to the path as a pathi bali (wayside offering), to propitiate evil spirits, or bhūthas. The same ceremonial should, strictly speaking, be performed at two other spots, but now-a-days it is the custom to place the corpse on the ground near the funeral pyre, moving its position three times, while the circumambulation and pathi bali are gone through only once. As soon as the corpse has reached the spot where the pyre is, the celebrant of the rites sprinkles water thereon, and throws a quarter of an anna on it as the equivalent of purchase of the ground for cremation. The sacred fire is lighted, and the right palm of the corpse is touched with a gold coin. The nine orifices of the body are then smeared with ghī, and rice is thrown over the corpse, and placed in its mouth. The son takes a burning brand from the sacred fire, lights the pyre, and looks at the sun. He then carries a pot filled with water, having a hole at the bottom through which the water trickles out, on his shoulders three times round the corpse, and, at the end of the third round, throws it down. Then he, and all the relations of the deceased, squat on the ground, facing east, take up some dharbha grass, and, cutting it into small fragments with their nails, scatter them in the air, while repeating some Vēdic verses, which are chanted very loudly and slowly, especially at the funeral of a respected elder. The celebrant then pours a little water on a stone, and sprinkles himself with it. This is also done by the other relations, and they pass beneath a bundle of dharbha grass and twigs ofFicus glomerataheld by the purōhit (officiatingpriest), and gaze for a moment at the sun. Once more they sprinkle themselves with water, and proceed to a tank, where they bathe. When they return home, two rites, called nagna (naked) srādh, and pāshāna sthāpanam (stone-fixing), are celebrated. The disembodied spirit is supposed to be naked after the body has been cremated. To clothe it, offerings of water, with balls of cooked rice, are made, and a cloth, lamp, and money are given to a Brāhman. Then two stones are set up, one in the house and the other on the bank of a tank, to represent the spirit of the deceased. For ten days, libations of water mixed with gingelly seeds, called tīlothakam, and a ball of cooked rice, must be offered to the stones. The ball of rice is left for crows to eat. The number of libations must be seventy-five, commencing with three on the first day, and increasing the number daily by one. In addition, three further libations are made daily by dipping a piece of cloth from the winding-sheet, and rinsing it over the stone (vasothakam). On the day after cremation, the relations assemble at the burning-ground, and the son, after extinguishing the burning embers, removes the fragments of bones from the ashes. The ceremony is called sanchyanam (gathering). Cooked food is offered. The bones are thrown into some sacred river, or buried in the ground. On the tenth day after death, a large quantity of cooked rice (prabhūthabali) is offered to the spirit of the dead person, which is believed to grow very hungry on that day. The food is heaped up on plantain leaves, and all the near relations go round them, crying and beating their breasts. It is mostly females who perform this rite, males standing aloof. The food is taken to a tank, and the widow, decorated and dressed up, is conducted thither. The food is thrown into the water, and, if the widow is an elderlyorthodox woman, her tāli is removed. On the same day, her head is clean shaved. A widow is not allowed to adorn herself with jewels and finery except on this day, when all her close relations come and see her. If this is not done, pregnant women may not see her for a year. All the agnates should be present on the tenth day, and perform tharpana (oblations of water). Until this day they are under pollution, and, after prabhūthabali, they bathe, and hōmam is performed. Some ashes from the sacred fire are mixed with ghī, and a mark is made on the foreheads of those who are under pollution, to remove it. During the period of pollution, a Sri Vaishnava will have only a white mark without the red streak on his forehead; a Mādhva will not have the black dot; and Smarthas avoid having marks altogether. The tenth day ceremony is called Dasāham. On the eleventh day, a ceremony called Ēkodishtam (eleventh day ceremony) is performed. A Brāhman is seated to represent the prētha or dead person, and fed after going through srādh rites. As a rule, the man is a close relation of the deceased. But, amongst certain classes of Brāhmans, an outsider is engaged, and well remunerated. On the twelfth day, the Sapindikaranam (sapinda, kinsman) ceremony, which is just like the ordinary srādh, is performed. At the close thereof, six balls of cooked rice are offered to three ancestors, male and female (three balls for males, and three for females). These balls are arranged in two rows, with a space between them. An elongated mass of food is placed between the rows, and divided with blades of dharbha grass into three portions, which are arranged close to the balls of rice. This is regarded as uniting the dead man with the pitris (ancestors). A cow is usually presented just before the union takes place, and the giftis believed to render the crossing of the river Vaitarani (river of death) easy for the departed soul. The Sapindikaranam is a very important ceremony. When there is a dispute concerning division of property on the death of an individual, the ceremony is not performed until the parties come to an agreement. For instance, if a married man dies without issue, and his widow’s brothers-in-law cannot come to terms as regards the partition of the property, the widow may refuse to allow the performance of the ceremony. The Sapindikaranam should, according to the shāstras, be performed a year after death,i.e., on the completion of all the Māsikas (monthly srādhs). But, at the present day, a ceremony called Shōdasam (the sixteen) is performed just before the Sapindikaranam on the twelfth day. In the course of the year, twelve monthly and four quarterly srādhs should be performed. The Shōdasam ceremony, which is carried out in lieu thereof, consists in giving presents of money and vessels to sixteen Brāhmans. On the twelfth day, a feast is held, and domestic worship is carried out on a large scale. At the close thereof, a slōka called Charma slōka, in praise of the deceased, is composed and repeated by some one versed in Sanskrit. Every month, for a year after a death in a family, srādh should, as indicated, be performed. This corresponds in detail with the annual srādh, which is regularly performed, unless a visit is paid to Gaya, which renders further performance of the rite not obligatory. For the performance of this ceremony by the nearest agnate of the deceased (eldest son or other), three Brāhmans should be called in, to represent respectively Vishnu, the Dēvatas, and the ancestors. Sometimes two Brāhmans are made to suffice, and Vishnu is represented by a sālagrāma stone. In extreme cases, only one Brāhmanassists at the ceremony, the two others being represented by dharbha grass. The sacred fire is lighted, and ghī, a small quantity of raw and cooked rice, and vegetables are offered up in the fire. The Brāhmans then wash their feet, and are fed. Before they enter the space set apart for the meal, water, gingelly, and rice are sprinkled about it, to keep off evil spirits. As soon as the meal is finished, a ball of rice, called vāyasa pindam (crow’s food), is offered to the pithru dēvatas (ancestors of three generations), and thrown to the crows. If they do not eat the rice, the omens are considered to be unfavourable. The Brāhmans receive betel and money in payment for their services. On one occasion my assistant was in camp at Kodaikānal on the Palni hills, the higher altitudes of which are uninhabited by crows, and he had perforce to march down to the plains, in order to perform the annual ceremony for his deceased father. The recurring annual srādh (Pratyābdhika) need not of necessity be performed. It is, however, regarded as an important ceremony, and, should an individual neglect it, he would run the risk of being excommunicated.The rites connected with the dead are based on the Garuda Purāna, according to which the libations of the ten days are said to help the growth of the body of the soul. In this connection, Monier Williams writes as follows:—93“On the first day, the ball (pinda) of rice offered by the eldest son or other near relative nourishes the spirit of the deceased in such a way as to furnish it with a head; on the second day, the offered pinda gives a neck and shoulders; on the third day a heart; on the fourth a back; on the fifth a navel; on the sixth a groinand the parts usually concealed; on the seventh thighs; on the eighth and ninth knees and feet. On the tenth day, the intermediate body is sufficiently formed to produce the sensation of hunger and thirst. Other pindas are therefore put before it, and, on the eleventh and twelfth days, the embodied spirit feeds voraciously on the offerings thus supplied, and so gains strength for its journey to its future abode. Then, on the thirteenth day after death, it is conducted either to heaven or hell. If to the latter, it has need of the most nourishing food, to enable it to bear up against the terrible ordeal which awaits it.”To the Hindu mind, Yama (the god of death) is a hideous god, whose servants are represented as being capable of tormenting the soul of the dead. “No sooner,” writes Monier Williams, “has death occurred, and cremation of the terrestrial body taken place, than Yama’s two messengers (Yama Dūtan), who are waiting near at hand, make themselves visible to the released spirit, which retains its subtle body composed of the subtle elements, and is said to be of the size of a thumb (angustha-mātra). Their aspect is terrific, for they have glaring eyes, hair standing erect, gnashing teeth, crow-black skin, and claw-like nails, and they hold in their hands the awful rod and noose of Yama. Then, as if their appearance in this form were not sufficiently alarming, they proceed to terrify their victim by terrible visions of the torments (yātana) in store for him. They then convey the bound spirit along the road to Yama’s abode. Being led before Yama’s judgment seat, it is confronted with his Registrar or Recorder named Chitra Gupta. This officer stands by Yama’s side, with an open book before him. It is his business to note down all the good and evil deeds ofevery human being born into the world, with the resulting merit (punya) and demerit (pāpa), and to produce a debtor and creditor account properly made up and balanced on the day when that being is brought before Yama. According to the balance on the side of merit or demerit is judgment pronounced. The road by which Yama’s two officers force a wicked man to descend to the regions of torment is described in the first two chapters of the Garuda Purāna. The length of the way is said to be 86,000 leagues (yojanas). The condemned soul, invested with its sensitive body, and made to travel at the rate of 200 leagues a day, finds no shady trees, no resting place, no food, no water. At one time it is scorched by a burning heat equal to that of twelve meridian suns, at another it is pierced by icy cold winds; now its tender frame is rent by thorns; now it is attacked by lions, tigers, savage dogs, venomous serpents, and scorpions. In one place it has to traverse a dense forest, whose leaves are swords; in another it falls into deep pits; in another it is precipitated from precipices; in another it has to walk on the edge of razors; in another on iron spikes. Here it stumbles about helplessly in profound darkness; there it struggles through loathsome mud swarming with leeches; here it toils through burning sand; there its progress is arrested by heaps of red-hot charcoal and stifling smoke. Compelled to pass through every obstacle, however formidable, it next encounters a succession of terrific showers, not of rain, but of live coals, stones, blood, boiling water and filth. Then it has to descend into appalling fissures, or ascend to sickening heights, or lose itself in vast caves, or wade through lakes seething with fœtid ordures. Then midway it has to pass the awful river Vaitarani, one hundred leagues in breadth, of unfathomable depth;flowing with irresistible impetuosity; filled with blood, matter, hair, and bones; infested with huge sharks, crocodiles, and sea monsters; darkened by clouds of hideous vultures and obscene birds of prey. Thousands of condemned spirits stand trembling on the banks, horrified by the prospect before them. Consumed by a raging thirst, they drink the blood which flows at their feet; then, tumbling headlong into the torrent, they are overwhelmed by the rushing waves. Finally, they are hurried down to the lowest depths of hell, and yet not destroyed. Pursued by Yama’s officers, they are dragged away, and made to undergo inconceivable tortures, the detail of which is given with the utmost minuteness in the succeeding chapters of the Garuda Purāna.”The Ahannikams, or daily observances, of a religious Brāhman are very many. Nowadays, Brāhmans who lead a purely religious life are comparatively few, and are mostly found in villages. The daily observances of such are the bath, the performance of the Sandhya service, Brahma yagna, Dēva pūja or Dēvatarchana, Tarpana (oblations of water), Vaisvadēva ceremony, and the reading of Purānas or Ithihāsas. Every orthodox Brāhman is expected to rise at the time called Brahma Muhūrtam in the hour and a half before sunrise. He should then clean his teeth, using as a brush mango leaf, or twigs ofAcacia arabicaor nīm (Melia Azadirachta). He next bathes in a river or tank (pond), standing knee-deep in the water, and repeating the following:—“I am about to perform the morning ablution in this sacred stream (Ganges, Sarasvati, Yamuna, Godāvari, etc.), in the presence of the gods and Brāhmans, with a view to the removal of guilt resulting from act, speech, and thought, from what has been touched and untouched, known and unknown, eaten and not eaten, drunk andnot drunk.” After the bath, he wipes his body with a damp cloth, and puts on his cotton madi cloth, which has been washed and dried. The cloth, washed, wrung, and hung up to dry, should not be touched by anybody. If this should happen prior to the bath, the cloth is polluted, and ceases to be madi. A silk cloth, which cannot be polluted, is substituted for it. The madi or silk cloth should be worn until the close of the morning ceremonies and meal. The man next puts the marks which are characteristic of his sect on the forehead and body, and performs the Sandhya service. This is very important, and is binding on all Brāhmans after the Upanayanam ceremony, though a large number are not particular in observing it. According to the shāstras, the Sandhya should be done in the morning and evening; but in practice there is an additional service at midday. Sandhyāvandhanam means the thanksgiving to God when day and night meet in the morning and evening. The rite commences with the sipping of water (āchamanam) from the hollow of the right palm. This is done three times, while the words Achyuthāyanamaha, Anantāyanamaha, and Govindāyana are repeated. Immediately after sipping, twelve parts of the body are touched with the fingers of the right hand in the following order:—
Indra—Sathakruthu, Vajranam, Sachipathi.Yama—Vaivaswata, Pithrupathi, Dharmarāja.Varuna—Prachethas, Apāmpathi, Swarūpinam.Sōman—Indum, Nisākaram, Ōshadīsam.Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.Nine kinds of grains soaked in water are placed in the seed-pans. These grains areDolichos Lablab(two varieties),Phaseolus Mungo(two varieties),Oryza sativa,Cicer Arietinum,Cajanus indicus,Eleusine Coracana, andVigna Catiang. The tying of the wrist-thread (pratisaram) is next proceeded with. Two cotton threads are laid on a vessel representing Varuna. After the recitation of Vēdic verses, the bridegroom takes one of the threads, and, dipping it in turmeric paste, holds it with his left thumb, smears some of the paste on it with his right thumb and forefinger, and ties it on the left wrist of the bride. The purōhit ties the other thread on the right wrist of the bridegroom, who, facing the assembly, says “I am going to take the bride.” He then recites the following Vēdic verse:—“Go to my future father-in-law with due precautions, and mingle with the members of his family. This marriage is sure to be pleasing to Indra, because he gets oblations of food, etc., after the marriage. May your path be smooth and free from thorns. May Sūrya and Bhaga promote our dhāmpathyam (companionship).”The purōhit again proclaims the marriage, and the gōtras and names of three generations are repeated. Those assembled then bless the couple. The bride’s father says that he is prepared to give his daughter in marriage to the bridegroom, who states that he accepts her. The father of the bride washes the feet of the bridegroom placed on a tray with milk and water. The bridegroom then washes the feet of the bride’s father. The bride sits in her father’s lap, and her mother stands at her side. The father, repeating the names of the bridegroom’s ancestors for three generations, saysthat he is giving his daughter to him. He places the hand of the bride on that of the bridegroom, and both he and the bride’s mother pour water over the united hands of the contracting couple. The following slōka is repeated:—“I am giving you a virgin decorated with jewels, to enable me to obtain religious merit.” The bridegroom takes the bride by the hand, and both take their seats in front of the sacred fire. This part of the ceremonial is called dhāre (pouring of water). Much importance is attached to it by Tulu Brāhmans. Among Non-Brāhman castes in South Canara, it forms the binding portion of the marriage ceremony. After the pouring of ghī as an oblation, the bridegroom throws down a few twigs of dharbha grass, and repeats the formula:—“Oh! dharbha, thou art capable of giving royal powers, and the teacher’s seat. May I not be separated from thee.” Then the bride’s father, giving a vessel of water, says “Here is Arghya water.” The bridegroom receives it with the formula:—“May this water destroy my enemies. May brilliancy, energy, strength, life, renown, glory, splendour, and power dwell in me.” Once again the bride’s father washes the feet of the bridegroom, who salutes his father-in-law, saying “Oh! water, unite me with fame, splendour, and milk. Make me beloved by all creatures, the lord of cattle. May fame, heroism, and energy dwell in me.” The bride’s father pours some water from a vessel over the hand of the bridegroom, who says “To the ocean I send you, the imperishable waters; go back to your source. May I not suffer loss in my offspring. May my sap not be shed.” A mixture of honey, plantain fruit, and ghī, is given to the bridegroom by the bride’s father with the words “Ayam Madhuparko” (honey mixture). Receiving it, the bridegroom mutters thefollowing:—“What is the honeyed, highest form of honey which consists in the enjoyment of food; by that honeyed highest form of honey, may I become highest, honeyed, an enjoyer of food.” He partakes three times of the mixture, and says:—“I eat thee for the sake of brilliancy, luck, glory, power, and the enjoyment of food.” Then the bride’s father gives a cocoanut to the bridegroom, saying “Gauhu” (cow). The bridegroom receives it with the words “Oh! cow, destroy my sin, and that of my father-in-law.” According to the Grihya Sūtras, a cow should be presented to the bridegroom, to be cooked or preserved. Next a plantain fruit is given to the bridegroom, who, after eating a small portion of it, hands it to the bride. The bride sits on a heap or bundle of paddy (unhusked rice), and the bridegroom says “Oh! Varuna, bless her with wealth. May there be no ill-feeling between herself, her brothers and sisters. Oh! Brihaspathi, bless her that she may not lose her husband. Oh! Indra, bless her to be fertile. Oh! Savitha, bless her that she may be happy in all respects. Oh! girl, be gentle-eyed and friendly to me. Let your look be of such a nature as not to kill your husband. Be kind to me, and to my brothers.88May you shine with lustre, and be of good repute. Live long, and bear living children.” The pair are then seated, and the bridegroom, taking a blade of dharbha grass, passes it between the eyebrows of the bride, and throws it behind her, saying “With this dharbha grass I remove the evil influence of any bad mark thou mayst possess, which is likely to cause widowhood.” [Certain marks or curls (suli) forebode prosperity, and others misery to a family into which a girl entersby marriage. And, when a wealthy Hindu meditates purchasing a horse, he looks to the presence or absence of certain marks on particular parts of the body, and thereby forms a judgment of the temper and qualities of the animal.] The bridegroom then repeats the following:—“Now they ought to rejoice, and not cry. They have arranged our union to bring happiness to both of us. In view of the happiness we are to enjoy hereafter, they should be glad. This is a fitting occasion for rejoicing.” Four Brāhmans next bring water, and the bridegroom receives it, saying:—“May the evil qualities of this water disappear; may it increase. Let the Brāhmans bring water for the bath, and may it bring long life and children to her.” A bundle of paddy, or a basket filled therewith, is brought to the pandal. The bride sits on the paddy, and a ring of dharbha grass is placed on her head. The bridegroom repeats the formula “Blessed by the Sūrya, sit round the sacred fire, and look at the dharbha ring, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law.” A yoke is then brought, one end of which is placed on the head of the bride above the ring, and the following formula is repeated:—“Oh! Indra, cleanse and purify this girl, just as you did in the case of Abhala, by pouring water through three holes before marrying her.” Abhala was an ugly woman, who wished to marry Indra. To attain this end, she did penance for a long time, and, meeting Indra, requested him to fulfil her desire. Indra made her his wife, after transforming her into a beautiful woman by sprinkling water over her through the holes in the wheels of the car which was his vehicle. Into the hole of the yoke a gold coin, or the tāli (marriage badge), is dropped, with the words “May this gold prove a blessing to you. May the yoke, the hole of the yoke, bring happinessto you. May we be blessed to unite your body with mine.” Then the bridegroom, sprinkling water over the yoke and coin, says:—“May you become purified by the sun through this purificatory water. May this water, which is the cause of thunder and lightning, bring happiness to you. Oh! girl, may this water give you health and long life. A new and costly silk cloth (kūrai), purchased by the bridegroom, is given to the bride, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! Indra, listen to my prayers; accept them, and fulfil my desires.” The bride puts on the cloth, with the assistance of the bridegroom’s sister, and sits on her father’s lap. The bridegroom, taking up the tāli, ties it by the string on the bride’s neck, saying:—“Oh! girl, I am tying the tāli to secure religious merit.” This is not a Vēdic verse, and this part of the ceremony is not included in the Grihya Sūtras. All the Brāhmans assembled bless the couple by throwing rice over their heads. A dharbha waist-cord is passed round the waist of the bride, and the following is repeated:—“This girl is gazing at Agni, wishing for health, wealth, strength and children. I am binding her for her good.” The bridegroom then holds the hand of the bride, and both go to the sacred fire, where the former says:—“Let Sūrya lead to Agni, and may you obtain permission from the Aswins to do so. Go with me to my house. Be my wife, and the mistress of my house. Instruct and help me in the performance of sacrifices.” After offerings of ghī in the sacred fire, the bridegroom says:—“Sōma was your husband; Gandharva knew thee next; Agni was your third husband. I, son of man, am your fourth husband. Sōma gave you to Gandharva, and Gandharva gave you to Agni, who gave to me with progeny and wealth.” The bridegroom takes hold of the bride’sright wrist, and, pressing on the fingers, passes his hand over the united fingers three times. This is called Pānigrahanam. To the Nambūtiri Brāhman this is a very important item, being the binding part of the marriage ceremonial. Some years ago, at a village near Chalakkudi in the Cochin State, a Nambūtiri refused to accept a girl as his bride, because the purōhit inadvertently grasped her fingers, to show how it ought to be done at the time of the marriage ceremony. The purōhit had to marry the girl himself. The next item in the ceremonial is Sapthapathi, or the taking of the seven steps. This is considered as the most binding portion thereof. The bridegroom lifts the left foot of the bride seven times, repeating the following:—“One step for sap, may Vishnu go after thee. Two steps for juice, may Vishnu go after thee. Three steps for vows, may Vishnu go after thee. Four steps for comfort, may Vishnu go after thee. Five steps for cattle, may Vishnu go after thee. Six steps for the prospering of wealth, may Vishnu go after thee. Seven steps for the seven-fold hōtriship,89may Vishnu go after thee. With seven steps we have become companions. May I attain to friendship with thee. May I not be separated from thy friendship. Mayst thou not be separated from my friendship. Let us be united; let us always take counsel together with good hearts and mutual love. May we grow in strength and prosperity together. Now we are one in minds, deeds, and desires. Thou art Rik, I am Sāmam; I am the sky, thou art the earth; I am the semen, thou art the bearer; I am the mind, thou art the tongue. Follow me faithfully, that we may have wealth and children together. Come thou of sweetspeech.” The bridegroom then does hōmam, repeating the following:—“We are offering oblations to Sōma, Gandharva, and Agni. This girl has just passed her virginity. Make her leave her father’s house. Bless her to remain fixed in her husband’s house. May she have a good son by your blessing. Cause her to beget ten children, and I shall be the eleventh child. Oh! Agni, bless her with children, and make them long-lived. Oh! Varuna, I pray to you for the same thing. May this woman be freed from the sorrow arising out of sterility, and be blessed by Garhapathyāgni. May she have a number of children in her, and become the mother of many living children. Oh! girl, may your house never know lamentations during nights caused by deaths. May you live long and happy with your husband and children. May the sky protect thy back; may Vāyu strengthen your thighs; and the Aswins your breast. May Savitri look after thy suckling sons. Until the garment is put on, may Brihaspathi guard them, and the Viswedēvas afterwards. Oh! Varuna, make me strong and healthy. Do not steal away years from our ages. All those who offer oblations pray for the same. Oh! you all-pervading Agni, pacify Varuna; you who blaze forth into flames to receive oblations, be friendly towards us. Be near us, and protect us. Receive, and be satisfied with our oblations. Make us prosperous. We are always thinking of you. Take our oblations to the several dēvatas, and give us medicine.” The bride next treads on a stone, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! girl, tread on this stone. Be firm like it. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm. Overcome thy enemies.” Some fried paddy is put in the sacred fire, and the bridegroom repeats the following:—“Oh! Agni, I am offering the fried grains, so that this girl may beblessed with long life. Oh! Agni, give me my wife with children, just as in olden days you were given Sūryayi with wealth. Oh! Agni, bless my wife with lustre and longevity. Also bless her husband with long life, that she may live happily. Oh! Agni, help us to overcome our enemies.” Again the bride treads on the stone, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! girl, tread on this stone, and be firm like it. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm. Overcome thy enemies.” This is followed by the offering of fried grain with the following formula:—“The virgins prayed to Sūrya and Agni to secure husbands, and they were at once granted their boons. Such an Agni is now being propitiated by offerings of fried paddy. Let him make the bride leave her father’s house.” For the third time, the bride treads on the stone, and fried paddy is offered with the formula:—“Oh! Agni, thou art the giver of life, and receiver of oblations. Oblations of ghī are now offered to you. Bless the pair to be of one mind.” The dharbha girdle is removed from the bride’s waist, with the verse: “I am loosening you from the bondage of Varuna. I am now removing the thread with which Sūrya bound you.” Those assembled then disperse. Towards evening, Brāhmans again assemble, and the bride and bridegroom sit before the sacred fire, while the former repeat several Vēdic riks. They are supposed to start for their home, driving in a carriage, and the verses repeated have reference to the chariot, horses, boats, etc. After ghī has been poured into the fire, a child, who should be a male who has not lost brothers or sisters, is seated in the lap of the bride, and the bridegroom says:—“May cows, horses, men, and wealth, increase in this house. Let this child occupy your lap, just as the Sōma creeper which gives strengthto the Dēvatas occupies the regions of the stars.” Giving some plantain fruit to the child, the bridegroom says:—“Oh! fruits, ye bear seeds. May my wife bear seeds likewise by your blessing.” Then the pair are shown Druva and Arundathi (the pole star and Ursa major), which are worshipped with the words:—“The seven Rishis who have led to firmness, she, Arundathi, who stands first among the six Krithikas (Pleiads), may she the eighth one, who leads the conjunction of the (moon with the) six Krithikas, the first (among conjunctions) shine upon us. Firm dwelling, firm origin; the firm one art thou, standing on the side of firmness. Thou art the pillar of the stars. Thus protect me against my adversaries.” They then proceed to perform the Sthālipāka ceremony, in which the bride should cook some rice, which the bridegroom offers as an oblation in the sacred fire. In practice, however, a little food is brought, and placed in the fire without being cooked. The purōhit decorates aFicusstick with dharbha grass, and gives it to the bridegroom. It is placed in the roof, or somewhere within the house, near the seed-pans. [According to the Grihya Sūtras, the couple ought to occupy the same mat, with the stick between them. This is not in vogue amongst several sections of Brāhmans. The Mysore Carnatakas, Mandya Aiyangars, and Shivallis, observe a kindred ceremony. Amongst the Mandyas, for example, on the fourth night of the marriage rites, the bridal couple occupy the same mat for a short time, and a stick is placed between them. The Pajamadmē, or mat marriage, amongst the Shivalli Brāhmans, evidently refers to this custom.] On the second and third days of the marriage ceremonies, hōmams are performed in the morning and evening, and the nalagu ceremony isperformed. In this, the couple are seated on two planks covered with mats and cloth, amidst a large number of women assembled within the pandal. In front of them, betel leaves, areca nuts, fruits, flowers, and turmeric paste are placed in a tray. The women sing songs which they have learnt from childhood, and the bride also sings the praises of the bridegroom. Taking a little of the turmeric paste rendered red by the addition of chunam (lime), she makes marks by drawing lines over the feet (nalangu idal). The ceremony closes with the waving of ārāthi (water coloured red with turmeric and chunam), and the distribution of pān-supāri (betel leaves and areca nuts). The waving is done by two women, who sing appropriate songs. On the fourth day, Brāhmans assemble, and the pair are seated in their midst. After the recitation of Vēdic verses, the contracting couple are blessed. A small quantity of turmeric paste, reddened by the addition of chunam, is mixed with ghī, and smeared over the shoulders of the pair, and a mark is made on their foreheads. This is called Pachchai Kalyānam, and is peculiar to Tamil Brāhmans, both Smarthas and Vaishnavas. Amongst Tamil Brāhmans, prominence is given to the maternal uncles on the fourth day. The bride and bridegroom are carried astride on the shoulders of their uncles, who dance to the strains of a band. When they meet, the couple exchange garlands (malaimāththal). Towards evening, a procession is got up at the expense of the maternal uncle of the bride, and is hence called Ammān Kōlam. The bride is dressed up as a boy, and another girl is dressed up to represent the bride. They are taken in procession through the streets, and, on their return, the pseudo-bridegroom is made to speak to the real bridegroom in somewhat insolent tones, and some mock play isindulged in. The real bridegroom is addressed as if he was the syce (groom) or gumastha (clerk) of the pseudo-bridegroom, and is sometimes treated as a thief, and judgment passed on him by the latter. Among Sri Vaishnavas, after the Pachchai smearing ceremony, the bridal couple roll a cocoanut to and fro across the dais, and the assembled Brāhmans chant stanzas in Tamil composed by a Vaishnava lady named Āndal, an avatar of Lakshmi, who dedicated herself to Vishnu. In these stanzas, she narrates to her attendants the dream, in which she went through the marriage ceremony after her dedication to the god. Pān-supāri, of which a little, together with some money, is set apart for Āndal, is then distributed to all present. A large crowd generally assembles, as it is believed that the chanting of Āndal’s srisukthi (praise of Lakshmi) brings a general blessing. The family priest calls out the names and gōtras of those who have become related to the bride and bridegroom through their marriage. As each person’s name is called out, he or she is supposed to make a present of cloths, money, etc., to the bridegroom or bride. [The Telugu and Carnataka Brāhmans, instead of the Pachchai Kalyānam, perform a ceremony called Nāgavali on the fourth or fifth day. Thirty-two lights and two vessels, representing Siva and Parvathi, are arranged in the form of a square. Unbleached thread, soaked in turmeric paste, is passed round the square, and tied to the pandal. The bridal couple sit in front of the square, and, after doing pūja (worship), cut the thread, and take their seats within the square. The bridegroom ties a tāli of black glass beads on the bride’s neck, in the presence of 33 crores (330 millions) of gods, represented by a number of small pots arranged round the square. Close to the pots are the figures of two elephants,designed in rice grains and salt respectively. After going round the pots, the couple separate, and the bridegroom stands by the salt elephant, and the bride by the other. They then talk about the money value of the two animals, and an altercation takes place, during which they again go round the pots, and stand, the bridegroom near the rice elephant, and the bride near the salt one. The bargaining as to the price of the animals is renewed, and the couple go round the pots once more. This ceremony is followed by a burlesque of domestic life. The bride is presented with two wooden dolls from Tirupati, and told to make a cradle out of the bridegroom’s turmeric-coloured cloth, which he wore on the tāli-tying day. The couple converse on domestic matters, and the bridegroom asks the bride to attend to her household affairs, so that he may go to his duties. She pleads her inability to do so because of the children, and asks him to take charge of them. She then shows the babies (dolls) to all present, and a good deal of fun is made out of the incident. The bride, with her mother standing by her side near two empty chairs, is then introduced to her new relations by marriage, who sit in pairs on the chairs, and make presents of pān-supāri and turmeric.] On the fifth day of the marriage ceremonies, before dawn, the bridal couple are seated on the dais, and the Gandharva stick is removed, with the words:—“Oh! Visvāwasu Gandharva, I pray to you to make this girl my wife. Unite her with me. Leave her, and seek another.” The bridegroom then performs hōmams. A coin is placed on the bride’s head, and a little ghī put thereon. Gazing at the bridegroom, she says:—“With a loving heart I regard thee who knowest my heart. Thou art radiant with tapas (penance). Fill me with a child, and this house of ourswith wealth. Thou art desirous of a son. Thus shalt thou reproduce thyself.” Looking at the bride, the bridegroom then says:—“I see thee radiant and eager to be filled with child by me. Thou art in thy youth now. Enjoy me, therefore, while I am over you, and so reproduce thyself, being desirous of a son.” Touching the bride’s breasts with his ring-finger, and then touching his heart, he repeats the following:—“May the Viswe gods unite our hearts; may the water unite our hearts; may Vāyu and Brahma unite our hearts; and may Sarasvati teach us both conversation appropriate to this occasion of our intercourse.” More Vēdic riks are then recited, as follows:—“Thou Prajāpathi, enter my body that I may have vigour during this act; so thou Thvastri, who fashionest forms with Vishnu and other gods; so thou Indra, who grantest boons with thy friends the Viswedēvas, by thy blessing may we have many sons. May Vishnu make thy womb ready; may Thvashtri frame the shape (of the child); may Prajāpathi pour forth (the sperm); may Dhatri give thee conception. Give conception, Sinivāli; give conception, Sarasvati. May the two Asvins, wreathed with lotus, give conception to thee. The embryo which the two Asvins produce with their golden kindling sticks, that embryo we call into thy womb, that thou mayst give birth to it after ten months. As the earth is pregnant with Agni, as the heaven is pregnant with Indra, as Vāyu dwells in the womb of the regions (of the earth), thus I place an embryo in thy womb. Open thy womb; take in the sperm. May a male child, an embryo, be begotten in the womb. The mother bears him ten months, may he be born, the most valiant of his kin. May a male embryo enter the womb, as an arrow the quiver; may a man be born here, thy son, after tenmonths. I do with thee (the work) that is sacred to Prajāpathi; may an embryo enter the womb. May a child be born without deficiency, with all its limbs, not blind, not lame, not sucked out by Pisāchas” (devils). The marriage is brought to a close, after this recitation, with the presentation of fruits, etc., to all the Brāhmans assembled, and to all relations, children included. The bridegroom chews betel for the first time on this day. The wrist-threads are removed, and the seed-pans containing the seedlings, which have been worshipped daily, are taken in procession to a tank (pond), into which the seedlings are thrown.It will be noticed that prayers for male issue are of frequent occurrence during the marriage ceremonial. In Sanskrit works, Putra (son) is defined as one who delivers a parent from a hell called put. It is generally believed that the welfare of a parent’s soul depends on the performance of srādh (memorial services) by his son. It was laid down by Manu that a man is perfect, when he consists of three—himself, his wife, and his son. In the Rig Vēda it is stated that “when a father sees the face of a living son, he pays a debt in him, and gains immortality. The pleasure which a father has in his son exceeds all other enjoyments. His wife is a friend, his daughter an object of companion, his son shines as his light in the highest world.” The following story of a certain pious man of ascetical temperament, who determined to shirk the religious duty of taking a wife, is narrated by Monier Williams:—“Quietly skipping over the second prescribed period of life, during which he ought to have been a householder (grihastha), he entered at once upon the third period—that is to say, he became an ascetic, abjured all female society, and retired to the woods. Wandering about one day,absorbed in meditation, he was startled by an extraordinary spectacle. He saw before him a deep and apparently bottomless pit. Around its edge some unhappy men were hanging suspended by ropes of grass, at which here and there a rat was nibbling. On asking their history, he discovered to his horror that they were his own ancestors compelled to hang in this unpleasant manner, and doomed eventually to fall into the abyss, unless he went back into the world, did his duty like a man, married a suitable wife, and had a son, who would be able to release them from their critical predicament.” This legend is recorded in detail in the Mahābhārata.A curious mock marriage ceremony is celebrated amongst Brāhmans when an individual marries a third wife. It is believed that a third marriage is very inauspicious, and that the bride will become a widow. To prevent this mishap, the man is made to marry the arka plant (Calotropis gigantea), and the real marriage thus becomes the fourth. If this ceremony is carried on in orthodox fashion, it is generally celebrated on some Sunday or Monday, when the constellation Astham is visible. The bridegroom and a Brāhman priest, accompanied by a third Brāhman, repair to a spot where the arka plant (a very common weed) is growing. The plant is decorated with a cloth and a piece of string, and symbolised into the sun. The bridegroom then invokes it thus:—“Oh! master of three lōks, Oh! the seven-horsed, Oh! Rāvi, avert the evils of the third marriage.” Next the plant is addressed with the words:—“You are the oldest of the plants of this world. Brahma created you to save such of us as have to marry a third time, so please become my wife.” The Brāhman who accompanies the bridegroom becomes his father-in-law for the moment, and says to him:—“I give you in marriageAditya’s great grand-daughter, Savi’s grand-daughter, and my daughter Arkakanya.” All the ceremonies, such as making hōmam, tāli-tying, etc., are performed as at a regular marriage, and, after the recitation of a few sentences from the Vēdas, the plant is cut down. “The plant,” Mr. A. Srinivasan writes,90“is named arka after the sun. When the car of the sun turns towards the north, every Hindu applies the leaves of this plant to his head before he bathes, in honour of the event. The plant is, besides, believed to be a willing scapegoat to others’ ills. Oil and ghī applied to the head of the victim of persistent illness has only to be transferred to this plant, when it withers and saves the man, even as Baber is said to have saved his son. The poet Kalidāsa describes sweet Sakuntala, born of a shaggy dweller of the forest, as a garland of jasmine thrown on an arka plant. ‘May the arka grow luxuriant in your house’ is the commonest form of curse. ‘Be thou belaboured with arka leaves’ is familiar in the mouths of reprimanding mothers. Adulterers were, half a century ago, seated on an ass, face to the tail, and marched through the village. The public disgrace was enhanced by placing a garland of the despised arka leaves on their head. [Uppiliyan women convicted of immorality are said to be garlanded with arka flowers, and made to carry a basket of mud round the village.] A Telugu proverb asks ‘Does the bee ever seek the arka flower?’ The reasons for the ill-repute that this plant suffers from are not at all clear. The fact that it has a partiality for wastes has evidently brought on its devoted head the dismal associations of desolation, but there would seem to be more deep-seated hatred to the plant than has beenexplained.” A Tamil proverb has it that he who crushes the bud of the arka earns merit. Some Telugu and Canarese Brāhmans, who follow the Yajur Vēda or Rig Vēda, consider the arka plant as sacred, and use the leaves thereof during the nāndhi (ancestor invoking) ceremony, which is performed as one of the marriage rites. Two or three arka leaves, with betel leaves and areca nuts, are tied to the cloth, which is attached to a stick as representing the ancestors (pithrus). With some the arka leaves are replaced by leaves ofPongamia glabra. On rathasapthami day (the seventh day after the new moon in the month Āvani), an orthodox Hindu should bathe his head and shoulders with arka leaves in propitiation of Sūrya (the sun). Brāhmans who follow the Sāma Vēda, during the annual upākarmam ceremony, make use of arka leaves and flowers in worshipping the Rishis and Pithrus. On the upākarmam day, the Sāma Vēdis invoke their sixty-two Rishis and the last three ancestors, who are represented by sixty-five clay balls placed on arka leaves. To them are offered arka flowers, fruits of karai-chedi (Canthium parviflorum), and nāval (Eugenia Jambolana). In addition to this worship, they perform the Rishi and Pithru tharpanam by offering water, gingelly (Sesamum indicum) seeds, and rice. The celebrant, prior to dipping his hand into the water, places in his hands two arka leaves, gingelly, and rice. The juice of the arka plant is a favourite agent in the hands of suicides. Among the Tangalān Paraiyans, if a young man dies before he is married, a ceremony called kannikazhithal (removing bachelorhood) is performed. Before the corpse is laid on the bier, a garland of arka flowers is placed round its neck, and balls of mud from a gutter are laid on the head, knees, and other parts of the body. In some places a variant of theceremony consists in the erection of a mimic marriage booth, which is covered with leaves of the arka plant, flowers of which are also placed round the neck as a garland. At a form of marriage called rambha or kathali (plantain) marriage, the arka plant is replaced by a plantain tree (Musa). It is performed by those who happen to be eldest brothers, and who are incapable of getting married, so as to give a chance to younger brothers, who are not allowed to marry unless the elder brother or brothers are already married.At the present day, many Hindus disregard certain ceremonies, in the celebration of which their forefathers were most scrupulous. Even the daily ceremonial ablutions, which are all important to a Brāhman from a shāstraic point of view, are now neglected by a large majority, and the prayers (mantrams), which should be chanted during their performance, are forgotten. But no Brāhman, orthodox or unorthodox, dares to abandon the death ceremonial, and annual srādh (memorial rites). A Brāhman beggar, when soliciting alms, invariably pleads that he has to perform his father or mother’s srādh, or upanayanam (thread ceremony) of his children, and he rarely goes away empty-handed. “The constant periodical performance,” Monier Williams writes,91“of commemorative obsequies is regarded in the light of a positive and peremptory obligation. It is the simple discharge of a solemn debt to one’s forefathers, a debt consisting not only in reverential homage, but in the performance of acts necessary to their support, happiness, and progress onwards in the spiritual world. A man’s deceased relatives, for at least three generations, are among his cherished divinities, and must be honouredby daily offerings and adoration, or a nemesis of some kind is certain to overtake his living family. The object of a Hindu funeral is nothing less than the investiture of the departed spirit with an intermediate gross body—a peculiar frame interposed, as it were parenthetically, between the terrestrial gross body, which has just been destroyed by fire, and the new terrestrial body, which it is compelled to ultimately assume. The creation of such an intervenient frame, composed of gross elements, though less gross than those of earth, becomes necessary, because the individualised spirit of man, after the cremation of the terrestrial body, has nothing left to withhold it from re-absorption into the universal soul, except its incombustible subtle body, which, as composed of the subtle elements, is not only proof against the fire of the funeral pile, but is incapable of any sensations in the temporary heaven, or temporary hell, through one or other of which every separate human spirit is forced to pass before returning to earth, and becoming re-invested with a terrestrial gross body.”When a Brāhman is on the point of death, he is removed from his bed, and laid on the floor. If there is any fear of the day being a danishtapanchami (inauspicious), the dying man is taken out of the house, and placed in the court-yard or pial (raised verandah). Some prayers are uttered, and a cow is presented (gōdhanam). These are intended to render the passage of life through the various parts of the body as easy as possible. The spirit is supposed to escape through one of the nine orifices of the body, according to the character of the individual concerned. That of a good man leaves the body through the brahmarandhra (top of the skull), and that of a bad man through the anus. Immediately after death, the body is washed, religious marks are made onthe forehead, and parched paddy and betel are scattered over and around it by the son. As a Brāhman is supposed always to have his fire with him, the sacred fire is lighted. At this stage, certain purificatory ceremonies are performed, if death has taken place on a day or hour of evil omen, or at midnight. Next, a little cooked rice is cooked in a new earthen pot, and a new cloth is thrown over the corpse, which is roused by the recitation of mantrams. Four bearers, to each of whom dharbha grass is given in token of his office, are selected to carry the corpse to the burning-ground. The eldest son, who is the funeral celebrant, and his brothers are shaved. On ordinary occasions, brothers should not be shaved on the same day, as this would be inauspicious. They are only shaved on the same day on the occasion of the death of their father or mother. The widow of the deceased, and female relations, go three times round the corpse, before it is placed on the bier. Very often, at this stage, all the women present set up a loud lamentation, and repeat the death songs.92If the dead person was a respected elder, special professional women, trained as mourners, are engaged. I am informed that, in the Coimbatore district, and amongst the Sathyamangalam Brahacharanams, there are certain widows who are professional mourners. As soon as they hear of the death of an elder, they repair to the house, and worry the bereaved family into engaging them for a small fee. The space, which intervenes between the dead man’s house and the burning-ground, is divided into four parts. When the end of the first of these is reached, the corpse is placed on the ground, and the sons and nephews go round it, repeating mantrams. They untie their kudumis(hair knot), leaving part thereof loose, tie up the rest into a small bunch, and keep on slapping their thighs. [When children at play have their kudumi partially tied, and slap their thighs, they are invariably scolded, owing to the association with funerals.] A little cooked rice is offered to the path as a pathi bali (wayside offering), to propitiate evil spirits, or bhūthas. The same ceremonial should, strictly speaking, be performed at two other spots, but now-a-days it is the custom to place the corpse on the ground near the funeral pyre, moving its position three times, while the circumambulation and pathi bali are gone through only once. As soon as the corpse has reached the spot where the pyre is, the celebrant of the rites sprinkles water thereon, and throws a quarter of an anna on it as the equivalent of purchase of the ground for cremation. The sacred fire is lighted, and the right palm of the corpse is touched with a gold coin. The nine orifices of the body are then smeared with ghī, and rice is thrown over the corpse, and placed in its mouth. The son takes a burning brand from the sacred fire, lights the pyre, and looks at the sun. He then carries a pot filled with water, having a hole at the bottom through which the water trickles out, on his shoulders three times round the corpse, and, at the end of the third round, throws it down. Then he, and all the relations of the deceased, squat on the ground, facing east, take up some dharbha grass, and, cutting it into small fragments with their nails, scatter them in the air, while repeating some Vēdic verses, which are chanted very loudly and slowly, especially at the funeral of a respected elder. The celebrant then pours a little water on a stone, and sprinkles himself with it. This is also done by the other relations, and they pass beneath a bundle of dharbha grass and twigs ofFicus glomerataheld by the purōhit (officiatingpriest), and gaze for a moment at the sun. Once more they sprinkle themselves with water, and proceed to a tank, where they bathe. When they return home, two rites, called nagna (naked) srādh, and pāshāna sthāpanam (stone-fixing), are celebrated. The disembodied spirit is supposed to be naked after the body has been cremated. To clothe it, offerings of water, with balls of cooked rice, are made, and a cloth, lamp, and money are given to a Brāhman. Then two stones are set up, one in the house and the other on the bank of a tank, to represent the spirit of the deceased. For ten days, libations of water mixed with gingelly seeds, called tīlothakam, and a ball of cooked rice, must be offered to the stones. The ball of rice is left for crows to eat. The number of libations must be seventy-five, commencing with three on the first day, and increasing the number daily by one. In addition, three further libations are made daily by dipping a piece of cloth from the winding-sheet, and rinsing it over the stone (vasothakam). On the day after cremation, the relations assemble at the burning-ground, and the son, after extinguishing the burning embers, removes the fragments of bones from the ashes. The ceremony is called sanchyanam (gathering). Cooked food is offered. The bones are thrown into some sacred river, or buried in the ground. On the tenth day after death, a large quantity of cooked rice (prabhūthabali) is offered to the spirit of the dead person, which is believed to grow very hungry on that day. The food is heaped up on plantain leaves, and all the near relations go round them, crying and beating their breasts. It is mostly females who perform this rite, males standing aloof. The food is taken to a tank, and the widow, decorated and dressed up, is conducted thither. The food is thrown into the water, and, if the widow is an elderlyorthodox woman, her tāli is removed. On the same day, her head is clean shaved. A widow is not allowed to adorn herself with jewels and finery except on this day, when all her close relations come and see her. If this is not done, pregnant women may not see her for a year. All the agnates should be present on the tenth day, and perform tharpana (oblations of water). Until this day they are under pollution, and, after prabhūthabali, they bathe, and hōmam is performed. Some ashes from the sacred fire are mixed with ghī, and a mark is made on the foreheads of those who are under pollution, to remove it. During the period of pollution, a Sri Vaishnava will have only a white mark without the red streak on his forehead; a Mādhva will not have the black dot; and Smarthas avoid having marks altogether. The tenth day ceremony is called Dasāham. On the eleventh day, a ceremony called Ēkodishtam (eleventh day ceremony) is performed. A Brāhman is seated to represent the prētha or dead person, and fed after going through srādh rites. As a rule, the man is a close relation of the deceased. But, amongst certain classes of Brāhmans, an outsider is engaged, and well remunerated. On the twelfth day, the Sapindikaranam (sapinda, kinsman) ceremony, which is just like the ordinary srādh, is performed. At the close thereof, six balls of cooked rice are offered to three ancestors, male and female (three balls for males, and three for females). These balls are arranged in two rows, with a space between them. An elongated mass of food is placed between the rows, and divided with blades of dharbha grass into three portions, which are arranged close to the balls of rice. This is regarded as uniting the dead man with the pitris (ancestors). A cow is usually presented just before the union takes place, and the giftis believed to render the crossing of the river Vaitarani (river of death) easy for the departed soul. The Sapindikaranam is a very important ceremony. When there is a dispute concerning division of property on the death of an individual, the ceremony is not performed until the parties come to an agreement. For instance, if a married man dies without issue, and his widow’s brothers-in-law cannot come to terms as regards the partition of the property, the widow may refuse to allow the performance of the ceremony. The Sapindikaranam should, according to the shāstras, be performed a year after death,i.e., on the completion of all the Māsikas (monthly srādhs). But, at the present day, a ceremony called Shōdasam (the sixteen) is performed just before the Sapindikaranam on the twelfth day. In the course of the year, twelve monthly and four quarterly srādhs should be performed. The Shōdasam ceremony, which is carried out in lieu thereof, consists in giving presents of money and vessels to sixteen Brāhmans. On the twelfth day, a feast is held, and domestic worship is carried out on a large scale. At the close thereof, a slōka called Charma slōka, in praise of the deceased, is composed and repeated by some one versed in Sanskrit. Every month, for a year after a death in a family, srādh should, as indicated, be performed. This corresponds in detail with the annual srādh, which is regularly performed, unless a visit is paid to Gaya, which renders further performance of the rite not obligatory. For the performance of this ceremony by the nearest agnate of the deceased (eldest son or other), three Brāhmans should be called in, to represent respectively Vishnu, the Dēvatas, and the ancestors. Sometimes two Brāhmans are made to suffice, and Vishnu is represented by a sālagrāma stone. In extreme cases, only one Brāhmanassists at the ceremony, the two others being represented by dharbha grass. The sacred fire is lighted, and ghī, a small quantity of raw and cooked rice, and vegetables are offered up in the fire. The Brāhmans then wash their feet, and are fed. Before they enter the space set apart for the meal, water, gingelly, and rice are sprinkled about it, to keep off evil spirits. As soon as the meal is finished, a ball of rice, called vāyasa pindam (crow’s food), is offered to the pithru dēvatas (ancestors of three generations), and thrown to the crows. If they do not eat the rice, the omens are considered to be unfavourable. The Brāhmans receive betel and money in payment for their services. On one occasion my assistant was in camp at Kodaikānal on the Palni hills, the higher altitudes of which are uninhabited by crows, and he had perforce to march down to the plains, in order to perform the annual ceremony for his deceased father. The recurring annual srādh (Pratyābdhika) need not of necessity be performed. It is, however, regarded as an important ceremony, and, should an individual neglect it, he would run the risk of being excommunicated.The rites connected with the dead are based on the Garuda Purāna, according to which the libations of the ten days are said to help the growth of the body of the soul. In this connection, Monier Williams writes as follows:—93“On the first day, the ball (pinda) of rice offered by the eldest son or other near relative nourishes the spirit of the deceased in such a way as to furnish it with a head; on the second day, the offered pinda gives a neck and shoulders; on the third day a heart; on the fourth a back; on the fifth a navel; on the sixth a groinand the parts usually concealed; on the seventh thighs; on the eighth and ninth knees and feet. On the tenth day, the intermediate body is sufficiently formed to produce the sensation of hunger and thirst. Other pindas are therefore put before it, and, on the eleventh and twelfth days, the embodied spirit feeds voraciously on the offerings thus supplied, and so gains strength for its journey to its future abode. Then, on the thirteenth day after death, it is conducted either to heaven or hell. If to the latter, it has need of the most nourishing food, to enable it to bear up against the terrible ordeal which awaits it.”To the Hindu mind, Yama (the god of death) is a hideous god, whose servants are represented as being capable of tormenting the soul of the dead. “No sooner,” writes Monier Williams, “has death occurred, and cremation of the terrestrial body taken place, than Yama’s two messengers (Yama Dūtan), who are waiting near at hand, make themselves visible to the released spirit, which retains its subtle body composed of the subtle elements, and is said to be of the size of a thumb (angustha-mātra). Their aspect is terrific, for they have glaring eyes, hair standing erect, gnashing teeth, crow-black skin, and claw-like nails, and they hold in their hands the awful rod and noose of Yama. Then, as if their appearance in this form were not sufficiently alarming, they proceed to terrify their victim by terrible visions of the torments (yātana) in store for him. They then convey the bound spirit along the road to Yama’s abode. Being led before Yama’s judgment seat, it is confronted with his Registrar or Recorder named Chitra Gupta. This officer stands by Yama’s side, with an open book before him. It is his business to note down all the good and evil deeds ofevery human being born into the world, with the resulting merit (punya) and demerit (pāpa), and to produce a debtor and creditor account properly made up and balanced on the day when that being is brought before Yama. According to the balance on the side of merit or demerit is judgment pronounced. The road by which Yama’s two officers force a wicked man to descend to the regions of torment is described in the first two chapters of the Garuda Purāna. The length of the way is said to be 86,000 leagues (yojanas). The condemned soul, invested with its sensitive body, and made to travel at the rate of 200 leagues a day, finds no shady trees, no resting place, no food, no water. At one time it is scorched by a burning heat equal to that of twelve meridian suns, at another it is pierced by icy cold winds; now its tender frame is rent by thorns; now it is attacked by lions, tigers, savage dogs, venomous serpents, and scorpions. In one place it has to traverse a dense forest, whose leaves are swords; in another it falls into deep pits; in another it is precipitated from precipices; in another it has to walk on the edge of razors; in another on iron spikes. Here it stumbles about helplessly in profound darkness; there it struggles through loathsome mud swarming with leeches; here it toils through burning sand; there its progress is arrested by heaps of red-hot charcoal and stifling smoke. Compelled to pass through every obstacle, however formidable, it next encounters a succession of terrific showers, not of rain, but of live coals, stones, blood, boiling water and filth. Then it has to descend into appalling fissures, or ascend to sickening heights, or lose itself in vast caves, or wade through lakes seething with fœtid ordures. Then midway it has to pass the awful river Vaitarani, one hundred leagues in breadth, of unfathomable depth;flowing with irresistible impetuosity; filled with blood, matter, hair, and bones; infested with huge sharks, crocodiles, and sea monsters; darkened by clouds of hideous vultures and obscene birds of prey. Thousands of condemned spirits stand trembling on the banks, horrified by the prospect before them. Consumed by a raging thirst, they drink the blood which flows at their feet; then, tumbling headlong into the torrent, they are overwhelmed by the rushing waves. Finally, they are hurried down to the lowest depths of hell, and yet not destroyed. Pursued by Yama’s officers, they are dragged away, and made to undergo inconceivable tortures, the detail of which is given with the utmost minuteness in the succeeding chapters of the Garuda Purāna.”The Ahannikams, or daily observances, of a religious Brāhman are very many. Nowadays, Brāhmans who lead a purely religious life are comparatively few, and are mostly found in villages. The daily observances of such are the bath, the performance of the Sandhya service, Brahma yagna, Dēva pūja or Dēvatarchana, Tarpana (oblations of water), Vaisvadēva ceremony, and the reading of Purānas or Ithihāsas. Every orthodox Brāhman is expected to rise at the time called Brahma Muhūrtam in the hour and a half before sunrise. He should then clean his teeth, using as a brush mango leaf, or twigs ofAcacia arabicaor nīm (Melia Azadirachta). He next bathes in a river or tank (pond), standing knee-deep in the water, and repeating the following:—“I am about to perform the morning ablution in this sacred stream (Ganges, Sarasvati, Yamuna, Godāvari, etc.), in the presence of the gods and Brāhmans, with a view to the removal of guilt resulting from act, speech, and thought, from what has been touched and untouched, known and unknown, eaten and not eaten, drunk andnot drunk.” After the bath, he wipes his body with a damp cloth, and puts on his cotton madi cloth, which has been washed and dried. The cloth, washed, wrung, and hung up to dry, should not be touched by anybody. If this should happen prior to the bath, the cloth is polluted, and ceases to be madi. A silk cloth, which cannot be polluted, is substituted for it. The madi or silk cloth should be worn until the close of the morning ceremonies and meal. The man next puts the marks which are characteristic of his sect on the forehead and body, and performs the Sandhya service. This is very important, and is binding on all Brāhmans after the Upanayanam ceremony, though a large number are not particular in observing it. According to the shāstras, the Sandhya should be done in the morning and evening; but in practice there is an additional service at midday. Sandhyāvandhanam means the thanksgiving to God when day and night meet in the morning and evening. The rite commences with the sipping of water (āchamanam) from the hollow of the right palm. This is done three times, while the words Achyuthāyanamaha, Anantāyanamaha, and Govindāyana are repeated. Immediately after sipping, twelve parts of the body are touched with the fingers of the right hand in the following order:—
Indra—Sathakruthu, Vajranam, Sachipathi.Yama—Vaivaswata, Pithrupathi, Dharmarāja.Varuna—Prachethas, Apāmpathi, Swarūpinam.Sōman—Indum, Nisākaram, Ōshadīsam.Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.Nine kinds of grains soaked in water are placed in the seed-pans. These grains areDolichos Lablab(two varieties),Phaseolus Mungo(two varieties),Oryza sativa,Cicer Arietinum,Cajanus indicus,Eleusine Coracana, andVigna Catiang. The tying of the wrist-thread (pratisaram) is next proceeded with. Two cotton threads are laid on a vessel representing Varuna. After the recitation of Vēdic verses, the bridegroom takes one of the threads, and, dipping it in turmeric paste, holds it with his left thumb, smears some of the paste on it with his right thumb and forefinger, and ties it on the left wrist of the bride. The purōhit ties the other thread on the right wrist of the bridegroom, who, facing the assembly, says “I am going to take the bride.” He then recites the following Vēdic verse:—“Go to my future father-in-law with due precautions, and mingle with the members of his family. This marriage is sure to be pleasing to Indra, because he gets oblations of food, etc., after the marriage. May your path be smooth and free from thorns. May Sūrya and Bhaga promote our dhāmpathyam (companionship).”The purōhit again proclaims the marriage, and the gōtras and names of three generations are repeated. Those assembled then bless the couple. The bride’s father says that he is prepared to give his daughter in marriage to the bridegroom, who states that he accepts her. The father of the bride washes the feet of the bridegroom placed on a tray with milk and water. The bridegroom then washes the feet of the bride’s father. The bride sits in her father’s lap, and her mother stands at her side. The father, repeating the names of the bridegroom’s ancestors for three generations, saysthat he is giving his daughter to him. He places the hand of the bride on that of the bridegroom, and both he and the bride’s mother pour water over the united hands of the contracting couple. The following slōka is repeated:—“I am giving you a virgin decorated with jewels, to enable me to obtain religious merit.” The bridegroom takes the bride by the hand, and both take their seats in front of the sacred fire. This part of the ceremonial is called dhāre (pouring of water). Much importance is attached to it by Tulu Brāhmans. Among Non-Brāhman castes in South Canara, it forms the binding portion of the marriage ceremony. After the pouring of ghī as an oblation, the bridegroom throws down a few twigs of dharbha grass, and repeats the formula:—“Oh! dharbha, thou art capable of giving royal powers, and the teacher’s seat. May I not be separated from thee.” Then the bride’s father, giving a vessel of water, says “Here is Arghya water.” The bridegroom receives it with the formula:—“May this water destroy my enemies. May brilliancy, energy, strength, life, renown, glory, splendour, and power dwell in me.” Once again the bride’s father washes the feet of the bridegroom, who salutes his father-in-law, saying “Oh! water, unite me with fame, splendour, and milk. Make me beloved by all creatures, the lord of cattle. May fame, heroism, and energy dwell in me.” The bride’s father pours some water from a vessel over the hand of the bridegroom, who says “To the ocean I send you, the imperishable waters; go back to your source. May I not suffer loss in my offspring. May my sap not be shed.” A mixture of honey, plantain fruit, and ghī, is given to the bridegroom by the bride’s father with the words “Ayam Madhuparko” (honey mixture). Receiving it, the bridegroom mutters thefollowing:—“What is the honeyed, highest form of honey which consists in the enjoyment of food; by that honeyed highest form of honey, may I become highest, honeyed, an enjoyer of food.” He partakes three times of the mixture, and says:—“I eat thee for the sake of brilliancy, luck, glory, power, and the enjoyment of food.” Then the bride’s father gives a cocoanut to the bridegroom, saying “Gauhu” (cow). The bridegroom receives it with the words “Oh! cow, destroy my sin, and that of my father-in-law.” According to the Grihya Sūtras, a cow should be presented to the bridegroom, to be cooked or preserved. Next a plantain fruit is given to the bridegroom, who, after eating a small portion of it, hands it to the bride. The bride sits on a heap or bundle of paddy (unhusked rice), and the bridegroom says “Oh! Varuna, bless her with wealth. May there be no ill-feeling between herself, her brothers and sisters. Oh! Brihaspathi, bless her that she may not lose her husband. Oh! Indra, bless her to be fertile. Oh! Savitha, bless her that she may be happy in all respects. Oh! girl, be gentle-eyed and friendly to me. Let your look be of such a nature as not to kill your husband. Be kind to me, and to my brothers.88May you shine with lustre, and be of good repute. Live long, and bear living children.” The pair are then seated, and the bridegroom, taking a blade of dharbha grass, passes it between the eyebrows of the bride, and throws it behind her, saying “With this dharbha grass I remove the evil influence of any bad mark thou mayst possess, which is likely to cause widowhood.” [Certain marks or curls (suli) forebode prosperity, and others misery to a family into which a girl entersby marriage. And, when a wealthy Hindu meditates purchasing a horse, he looks to the presence or absence of certain marks on particular parts of the body, and thereby forms a judgment of the temper and qualities of the animal.] The bridegroom then repeats the following:—“Now they ought to rejoice, and not cry. They have arranged our union to bring happiness to both of us. In view of the happiness we are to enjoy hereafter, they should be glad. This is a fitting occasion for rejoicing.” Four Brāhmans next bring water, and the bridegroom receives it, saying:—“May the evil qualities of this water disappear; may it increase. Let the Brāhmans bring water for the bath, and may it bring long life and children to her.” A bundle of paddy, or a basket filled therewith, is brought to the pandal. The bride sits on the paddy, and a ring of dharbha grass is placed on her head. The bridegroom repeats the formula “Blessed by the Sūrya, sit round the sacred fire, and look at the dharbha ring, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law.” A yoke is then brought, one end of which is placed on the head of the bride above the ring, and the following formula is repeated:—“Oh! Indra, cleanse and purify this girl, just as you did in the case of Abhala, by pouring water through three holes before marrying her.” Abhala was an ugly woman, who wished to marry Indra. To attain this end, she did penance for a long time, and, meeting Indra, requested him to fulfil her desire. Indra made her his wife, after transforming her into a beautiful woman by sprinkling water over her through the holes in the wheels of the car which was his vehicle. Into the hole of the yoke a gold coin, or the tāli (marriage badge), is dropped, with the words “May this gold prove a blessing to you. May the yoke, the hole of the yoke, bring happinessto you. May we be blessed to unite your body with mine.” Then the bridegroom, sprinkling water over the yoke and coin, says:—“May you become purified by the sun through this purificatory water. May this water, which is the cause of thunder and lightning, bring happiness to you. Oh! girl, may this water give you health and long life. A new and costly silk cloth (kūrai), purchased by the bridegroom, is given to the bride, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! Indra, listen to my prayers; accept them, and fulfil my desires.” The bride puts on the cloth, with the assistance of the bridegroom’s sister, and sits on her father’s lap. The bridegroom, taking up the tāli, ties it by the string on the bride’s neck, saying:—“Oh! girl, I am tying the tāli to secure religious merit.” This is not a Vēdic verse, and this part of the ceremony is not included in the Grihya Sūtras. All the Brāhmans assembled bless the couple by throwing rice over their heads. A dharbha waist-cord is passed round the waist of the bride, and the following is repeated:—“This girl is gazing at Agni, wishing for health, wealth, strength and children. I am binding her for her good.” The bridegroom then holds the hand of the bride, and both go to the sacred fire, where the former says:—“Let Sūrya lead to Agni, and may you obtain permission from the Aswins to do so. Go with me to my house. Be my wife, and the mistress of my house. Instruct and help me in the performance of sacrifices.” After offerings of ghī in the sacred fire, the bridegroom says:—“Sōma was your husband; Gandharva knew thee next; Agni was your third husband. I, son of man, am your fourth husband. Sōma gave you to Gandharva, and Gandharva gave you to Agni, who gave to me with progeny and wealth.” The bridegroom takes hold of the bride’sright wrist, and, pressing on the fingers, passes his hand over the united fingers three times. This is called Pānigrahanam. To the Nambūtiri Brāhman this is a very important item, being the binding part of the marriage ceremonial. Some years ago, at a village near Chalakkudi in the Cochin State, a Nambūtiri refused to accept a girl as his bride, because the purōhit inadvertently grasped her fingers, to show how it ought to be done at the time of the marriage ceremony. The purōhit had to marry the girl himself. The next item in the ceremonial is Sapthapathi, or the taking of the seven steps. This is considered as the most binding portion thereof. The bridegroom lifts the left foot of the bride seven times, repeating the following:—“One step for sap, may Vishnu go after thee. Two steps for juice, may Vishnu go after thee. Three steps for vows, may Vishnu go after thee. Four steps for comfort, may Vishnu go after thee. Five steps for cattle, may Vishnu go after thee. Six steps for the prospering of wealth, may Vishnu go after thee. Seven steps for the seven-fold hōtriship,89may Vishnu go after thee. With seven steps we have become companions. May I attain to friendship with thee. May I not be separated from thy friendship. Mayst thou not be separated from my friendship. Let us be united; let us always take counsel together with good hearts and mutual love. May we grow in strength and prosperity together. Now we are one in minds, deeds, and desires. Thou art Rik, I am Sāmam; I am the sky, thou art the earth; I am the semen, thou art the bearer; I am the mind, thou art the tongue. Follow me faithfully, that we may have wealth and children together. Come thou of sweetspeech.” The bridegroom then does hōmam, repeating the following:—“We are offering oblations to Sōma, Gandharva, and Agni. This girl has just passed her virginity. Make her leave her father’s house. Bless her to remain fixed in her husband’s house. May she have a good son by your blessing. Cause her to beget ten children, and I shall be the eleventh child. Oh! Agni, bless her with children, and make them long-lived. Oh! Varuna, I pray to you for the same thing. May this woman be freed from the sorrow arising out of sterility, and be blessed by Garhapathyāgni. May she have a number of children in her, and become the mother of many living children. Oh! girl, may your house never know lamentations during nights caused by deaths. May you live long and happy with your husband and children. May the sky protect thy back; may Vāyu strengthen your thighs; and the Aswins your breast. May Savitri look after thy suckling sons. Until the garment is put on, may Brihaspathi guard them, and the Viswedēvas afterwards. Oh! Varuna, make me strong and healthy. Do not steal away years from our ages. All those who offer oblations pray for the same. Oh! you all-pervading Agni, pacify Varuna; you who blaze forth into flames to receive oblations, be friendly towards us. Be near us, and protect us. Receive, and be satisfied with our oblations. Make us prosperous. We are always thinking of you. Take our oblations to the several dēvatas, and give us medicine.” The bride next treads on a stone, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! girl, tread on this stone. Be firm like it. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm. Overcome thy enemies.” Some fried paddy is put in the sacred fire, and the bridegroom repeats the following:—“Oh! Agni, I am offering the fried grains, so that this girl may beblessed with long life. Oh! Agni, give me my wife with children, just as in olden days you were given Sūryayi with wealth. Oh! Agni, bless my wife with lustre and longevity. Also bless her husband with long life, that she may live happily. Oh! Agni, help us to overcome our enemies.” Again the bride treads on the stone, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! girl, tread on this stone, and be firm like it. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm. Overcome thy enemies.” This is followed by the offering of fried grain with the following formula:—“The virgins prayed to Sūrya and Agni to secure husbands, and they were at once granted their boons. Such an Agni is now being propitiated by offerings of fried paddy. Let him make the bride leave her father’s house.” For the third time, the bride treads on the stone, and fried paddy is offered with the formula:—“Oh! Agni, thou art the giver of life, and receiver of oblations. Oblations of ghī are now offered to you. Bless the pair to be of one mind.” The dharbha girdle is removed from the bride’s waist, with the verse: “I am loosening you from the bondage of Varuna. I am now removing the thread with which Sūrya bound you.” Those assembled then disperse. Towards evening, Brāhmans again assemble, and the bride and bridegroom sit before the sacred fire, while the former repeat several Vēdic riks. They are supposed to start for their home, driving in a carriage, and the verses repeated have reference to the chariot, horses, boats, etc. After ghī has been poured into the fire, a child, who should be a male who has not lost brothers or sisters, is seated in the lap of the bride, and the bridegroom says:—“May cows, horses, men, and wealth, increase in this house. Let this child occupy your lap, just as the Sōma creeper which gives strengthto the Dēvatas occupies the regions of the stars.” Giving some plantain fruit to the child, the bridegroom says:—“Oh! fruits, ye bear seeds. May my wife bear seeds likewise by your blessing.” Then the pair are shown Druva and Arundathi (the pole star and Ursa major), which are worshipped with the words:—“The seven Rishis who have led to firmness, she, Arundathi, who stands first among the six Krithikas (Pleiads), may she the eighth one, who leads the conjunction of the (moon with the) six Krithikas, the first (among conjunctions) shine upon us. Firm dwelling, firm origin; the firm one art thou, standing on the side of firmness. Thou art the pillar of the stars. Thus protect me against my adversaries.” They then proceed to perform the Sthālipāka ceremony, in which the bride should cook some rice, which the bridegroom offers as an oblation in the sacred fire. In practice, however, a little food is brought, and placed in the fire without being cooked. The purōhit decorates aFicusstick with dharbha grass, and gives it to the bridegroom. It is placed in the roof, or somewhere within the house, near the seed-pans. [According to the Grihya Sūtras, the couple ought to occupy the same mat, with the stick between them. This is not in vogue amongst several sections of Brāhmans. The Mysore Carnatakas, Mandya Aiyangars, and Shivallis, observe a kindred ceremony. Amongst the Mandyas, for example, on the fourth night of the marriage rites, the bridal couple occupy the same mat for a short time, and a stick is placed between them. The Pajamadmē, or mat marriage, amongst the Shivalli Brāhmans, evidently refers to this custom.] On the second and third days of the marriage ceremonies, hōmams are performed in the morning and evening, and the nalagu ceremony isperformed. In this, the couple are seated on two planks covered with mats and cloth, amidst a large number of women assembled within the pandal. In front of them, betel leaves, areca nuts, fruits, flowers, and turmeric paste are placed in a tray. The women sing songs which they have learnt from childhood, and the bride also sings the praises of the bridegroom. Taking a little of the turmeric paste rendered red by the addition of chunam (lime), she makes marks by drawing lines over the feet (nalangu idal). The ceremony closes with the waving of ārāthi (water coloured red with turmeric and chunam), and the distribution of pān-supāri (betel leaves and areca nuts). The waving is done by two women, who sing appropriate songs. On the fourth day, Brāhmans assemble, and the pair are seated in their midst. After the recitation of Vēdic verses, the contracting couple are blessed. A small quantity of turmeric paste, reddened by the addition of chunam, is mixed with ghī, and smeared over the shoulders of the pair, and a mark is made on their foreheads. This is called Pachchai Kalyānam, and is peculiar to Tamil Brāhmans, both Smarthas and Vaishnavas. Amongst Tamil Brāhmans, prominence is given to the maternal uncles on the fourth day. The bride and bridegroom are carried astride on the shoulders of their uncles, who dance to the strains of a band. When they meet, the couple exchange garlands (malaimāththal). Towards evening, a procession is got up at the expense of the maternal uncle of the bride, and is hence called Ammān Kōlam. The bride is dressed up as a boy, and another girl is dressed up to represent the bride. They are taken in procession through the streets, and, on their return, the pseudo-bridegroom is made to speak to the real bridegroom in somewhat insolent tones, and some mock play isindulged in. The real bridegroom is addressed as if he was the syce (groom) or gumastha (clerk) of the pseudo-bridegroom, and is sometimes treated as a thief, and judgment passed on him by the latter. Among Sri Vaishnavas, after the Pachchai smearing ceremony, the bridal couple roll a cocoanut to and fro across the dais, and the assembled Brāhmans chant stanzas in Tamil composed by a Vaishnava lady named Āndal, an avatar of Lakshmi, who dedicated herself to Vishnu. In these stanzas, she narrates to her attendants the dream, in which she went through the marriage ceremony after her dedication to the god. Pān-supāri, of which a little, together with some money, is set apart for Āndal, is then distributed to all present. A large crowd generally assembles, as it is believed that the chanting of Āndal’s srisukthi (praise of Lakshmi) brings a general blessing. The family priest calls out the names and gōtras of those who have become related to the bride and bridegroom through their marriage. As each person’s name is called out, he or she is supposed to make a present of cloths, money, etc., to the bridegroom or bride. [The Telugu and Carnataka Brāhmans, instead of the Pachchai Kalyānam, perform a ceremony called Nāgavali on the fourth or fifth day. Thirty-two lights and two vessels, representing Siva and Parvathi, are arranged in the form of a square. Unbleached thread, soaked in turmeric paste, is passed round the square, and tied to the pandal. The bridal couple sit in front of the square, and, after doing pūja (worship), cut the thread, and take their seats within the square. The bridegroom ties a tāli of black glass beads on the bride’s neck, in the presence of 33 crores (330 millions) of gods, represented by a number of small pots arranged round the square. Close to the pots are the figures of two elephants,designed in rice grains and salt respectively. After going round the pots, the couple separate, and the bridegroom stands by the salt elephant, and the bride by the other. They then talk about the money value of the two animals, and an altercation takes place, during which they again go round the pots, and stand, the bridegroom near the rice elephant, and the bride near the salt one. The bargaining as to the price of the animals is renewed, and the couple go round the pots once more. This ceremony is followed by a burlesque of domestic life. The bride is presented with two wooden dolls from Tirupati, and told to make a cradle out of the bridegroom’s turmeric-coloured cloth, which he wore on the tāli-tying day. The couple converse on domestic matters, and the bridegroom asks the bride to attend to her household affairs, so that he may go to his duties. She pleads her inability to do so because of the children, and asks him to take charge of them. She then shows the babies (dolls) to all present, and a good deal of fun is made out of the incident. The bride, with her mother standing by her side near two empty chairs, is then introduced to her new relations by marriage, who sit in pairs on the chairs, and make presents of pān-supāri and turmeric.] On the fifth day of the marriage ceremonies, before dawn, the bridal couple are seated on the dais, and the Gandharva stick is removed, with the words:—“Oh! Visvāwasu Gandharva, I pray to you to make this girl my wife. Unite her with me. Leave her, and seek another.” The bridegroom then performs hōmams. A coin is placed on the bride’s head, and a little ghī put thereon. Gazing at the bridegroom, she says:—“With a loving heart I regard thee who knowest my heart. Thou art radiant with tapas (penance). Fill me with a child, and this house of ourswith wealth. Thou art desirous of a son. Thus shalt thou reproduce thyself.” Looking at the bride, the bridegroom then says:—“I see thee radiant and eager to be filled with child by me. Thou art in thy youth now. Enjoy me, therefore, while I am over you, and so reproduce thyself, being desirous of a son.” Touching the bride’s breasts with his ring-finger, and then touching his heart, he repeats the following:—“May the Viswe gods unite our hearts; may the water unite our hearts; may Vāyu and Brahma unite our hearts; and may Sarasvati teach us both conversation appropriate to this occasion of our intercourse.” More Vēdic riks are then recited, as follows:—“Thou Prajāpathi, enter my body that I may have vigour during this act; so thou Thvastri, who fashionest forms with Vishnu and other gods; so thou Indra, who grantest boons with thy friends the Viswedēvas, by thy blessing may we have many sons. May Vishnu make thy womb ready; may Thvashtri frame the shape (of the child); may Prajāpathi pour forth (the sperm); may Dhatri give thee conception. Give conception, Sinivāli; give conception, Sarasvati. May the two Asvins, wreathed with lotus, give conception to thee. The embryo which the two Asvins produce with their golden kindling sticks, that embryo we call into thy womb, that thou mayst give birth to it after ten months. As the earth is pregnant with Agni, as the heaven is pregnant with Indra, as Vāyu dwells in the womb of the regions (of the earth), thus I place an embryo in thy womb. Open thy womb; take in the sperm. May a male child, an embryo, be begotten in the womb. The mother bears him ten months, may he be born, the most valiant of his kin. May a male embryo enter the womb, as an arrow the quiver; may a man be born here, thy son, after tenmonths. I do with thee (the work) that is sacred to Prajāpathi; may an embryo enter the womb. May a child be born without deficiency, with all its limbs, not blind, not lame, not sucked out by Pisāchas” (devils). The marriage is brought to a close, after this recitation, with the presentation of fruits, etc., to all the Brāhmans assembled, and to all relations, children included. The bridegroom chews betel for the first time on this day. The wrist-threads are removed, and the seed-pans containing the seedlings, which have been worshipped daily, are taken in procession to a tank (pond), into which the seedlings are thrown.It will be noticed that prayers for male issue are of frequent occurrence during the marriage ceremonial. In Sanskrit works, Putra (son) is defined as one who delivers a parent from a hell called put. It is generally believed that the welfare of a parent’s soul depends on the performance of srādh (memorial services) by his son. It was laid down by Manu that a man is perfect, when he consists of three—himself, his wife, and his son. In the Rig Vēda it is stated that “when a father sees the face of a living son, he pays a debt in him, and gains immortality. The pleasure which a father has in his son exceeds all other enjoyments. His wife is a friend, his daughter an object of companion, his son shines as his light in the highest world.” The following story of a certain pious man of ascetical temperament, who determined to shirk the religious duty of taking a wife, is narrated by Monier Williams:—“Quietly skipping over the second prescribed period of life, during which he ought to have been a householder (grihastha), he entered at once upon the third period—that is to say, he became an ascetic, abjured all female society, and retired to the woods. Wandering about one day,absorbed in meditation, he was startled by an extraordinary spectacle. He saw before him a deep and apparently bottomless pit. Around its edge some unhappy men were hanging suspended by ropes of grass, at which here and there a rat was nibbling. On asking their history, he discovered to his horror that they were his own ancestors compelled to hang in this unpleasant manner, and doomed eventually to fall into the abyss, unless he went back into the world, did his duty like a man, married a suitable wife, and had a son, who would be able to release them from their critical predicament.” This legend is recorded in detail in the Mahābhārata.A curious mock marriage ceremony is celebrated amongst Brāhmans when an individual marries a third wife. It is believed that a third marriage is very inauspicious, and that the bride will become a widow. To prevent this mishap, the man is made to marry the arka plant (Calotropis gigantea), and the real marriage thus becomes the fourth. If this ceremony is carried on in orthodox fashion, it is generally celebrated on some Sunday or Monday, when the constellation Astham is visible. The bridegroom and a Brāhman priest, accompanied by a third Brāhman, repair to a spot where the arka plant (a very common weed) is growing. The plant is decorated with a cloth and a piece of string, and symbolised into the sun. The bridegroom then invokes it thus:—“Oh! master of three lōks, Oh! the seven-horsed, Oh! Rāvi, avert the evils of the third marriage.” Next the plant is addressed with the words:—“You are the oldest of the plants of this world. Brahma created you to save such of us as have to marry a third time, so please become my wife.” The Brāhman who accompanies the bridegroom becomes his father-in-law for the moment, and says to him:—“I give you in marriageAditya’s great grand-daughter, Savi’s grand-daughter, and my daughter Arkakanya.” All the ceremonies, such as making hōmam, tāli-tying, etc., are performed as at a regular marriage, and, after the recitation of a few sentences from the Vēdas, the plant is cut down. “The plant,” Mr. A. Srinivasan writes,90“is named arka after the sun. When the car of the sun turns towards the north, every Hindu applies the leaves of this plant to his head before he bathes, in honour of the event. The plant is, besides, believed to be a willing scapegoat to others’ ills. Oil and ghī applied to the head of the victim of persistent illness has only to be transferred to this plant, when it withers and saves the man, even as Baber is said to have saved his son. The poet Kalidāsa describes sweet Sakuntala, born of a shaggy dweller of the forest, as a garland of jasmine thrown on an arka plant. ‘May the arka grow luxuriant in your house’ is the commonest form of curse. ‘Be thou belaboured with arka leaves’ is familiar in the mouths of reprimanding mothers. Adulterers were, half a century ago, seated on an ass, face to the tail, and marched through the village. The public disgrace was enhanced by placing a garland of the despised arka leaves on their head. [Uppiliyan women convicted of immorality are said to be garlanded with arka flowers, and made to carry a basket of mud round the village.] A Telugu proverb asks ‘Does the bee ever seek the arka flower?’ The reasons for the ill-repute that this plant suffers from are not at all clear. The fact that it has a partiality for wastes has evidently brought on its devoted head the dismal associations of desolation, but there would seem to be more deep-seated hatred to the plant than has beenexplained.” A Tamil proverb has it that he who crushes the bud of the arka earns merit. Some Telugu and Canarese Brāhmans, who follow the Yajur Vēda or Rig Vēda, consider the arka plant as sacred, and use the leaves thereof during the nāndhi (ancestor invoking) ceremony, which is performed as one of the marriage rites. Two or three arka leaves, with betel leaves and areca nuts, are tied to the cloth, which is attached to a stick as representing the ancestors (pithrus). With some the arka leaves are replaced by leaves ofPongamia glabra. On rathasapthami day (the seventh day after the new moon in the month Āvani), an orthodox Hindu should bathe his head and shoulders with arka leaves in propitiation of Sūrya (the sun). Brāhmans who follow the Sāma Vēda, during the annual upākarmam ceremony, make use of arka leaves and flowers in worshipping the Rishis and Pithrus. On the upākarmam day, the Sāma Vēdis invoke their sixty-two Rishis and the last three ancestors, who are represented by sixty-five clay balls placed on arka leaves. To them are offered arka flowers, fruits of karai-chedi (Canthium parviflorum), and nāval (Eugenia Jambolana). In addition to this worship, they perform the Rishi and Pithru tharpanam by offering water, gingelly (Sesamum indicum) seeds, and rice. The celebrant, prior to dipping his hand into the water, places in his hands two arka leaves, gingelly, and rice. The juice of the arka plant is a favourite agent in the hands of suicides. Among the Tangalān Paraiyans, if a young man dies before he is married, a ceremony called kannikazhithal (removing bachelorhood) is performed. Before the corpse is laid on the bier, a garland of arka flowers is placed round its neck, and balls of mud from a gutter are laid on the head, knees, and other parts of the body. In some places a variant of theceremony consists in the erection of a mimic marriage booth, which is covered with leaves of the arka plant, flowers of which are also placed round the neck as a garland. At a form of marriage called rambha or kathali (plantain) marriage, the arka plant is replaced by a plantain tree (Musa). It is performed by those who happen to be eldest brothers, and who are incapable of getting married, so as to give a chance to younger brothers, who are not allowed to marry unless the elder brother or brothers are already married.At the present day, many Hindus disregard certain ceremonies, in the celebration of which their forefathers were most scrupulous. Even the daily ceremonial ablutions, which are all important to a Brāhman from a shāstraic point of view, are now neglected by a large majority, and the prayers (mantrams), which should be chanted during their performance, are forgotten. But no Brāhman, orthodox or unorthodox, dares to abandon the death ceremonial, and annual srādh (memorial rites). A Brāhman beggar, when soliciting alms, invariably pleads that he has to perform his father or mother’s srādh, or upanayanam (thread ceremony) of his children, and he rarely goes away empty-handed. “The constant periodical performance,” Monier Williams writes,91“of commemorative obsequies is regarded in the light of a positive and peremptory obligation. It is the simple discharge of a solemn debt to one’s forefathers, a debt consisting not only in reverential homage, but in the performance of acts necessary to their support, happiness, and progress onwards in the spiritual world. A man’s deceased relatives, for at least three generations, are among his cherished divinities, and must be honouredby daily offerings and adoration, or a nemesis of some kind is certain to overtake his living family. The object of a Hindu funeral is nothing less than the investiture of the departed spirit with an intermediate gross body—a peculiar frame interposed, as it were parenthetically, between the terrestrial gross body, which has just been destroyed by fire, and the new terrestrial body, which it is compelled to ultimately assume. The creation of such an intervenient frame, composed of gross elements, though less gross than those of earth, becomes necessary, because the individualised spirit of man, after the cremation of the terrestrial body, has nothing left to withhold it from re-absorption into the universal soul, except its incombustible subtle body, which, as composed of the subtle elements, is not only proof against the fire of the funeral pile, but is incapable of any sensations in the temporary heaven, or temporary hell, through one or other of which every separate human spirit is forced to pass before returning to earth, and becoming re-invested with a terrestrial gross body.”When a Brāhman is on the point of death, he is removed from his bed, and laid on the floor. If there is any fear of the day being a danishtapanchami (inauspicious), the dying man is taken out of the house, and placed in the court-yard or pial (raised verandah). Some prayers are uttered, and a cow is presented (gōdhanam). These are intended to render the passage of life through the various parts of the body as easy as possible. The spirit is supposed to escape through one of the nine orifices of the body, according to the character of the individual concerned. That of a good man leaves the body through the brahmarandhra (top of the skull), and that of a bad man through the anus. Immediately after death, the body is washed, religious marks are made onthe forehead, and parched paddy and betel are scattered over and around it by the son. As a Brāhman is supposed always to have his fire with him, the sacred fire is lighted. At this stage, certain purificatory ceremonies are performed, if death has taken place on a day or hour of evil omen, or at midnight. Next, a little cooked rice is cooked in a new earthen pot, and a new cloth is thrown over the corpse, which is roused by the recitation of mantrams. Four bearers, to each of whom dharbha grass is given in token of his office, are selected to carry the corpse to the burning-ground. The eldest son, who is the funeral celebrant, and his brothers are shaved. On ordinary occasions, brothers should not be shaved on the same day, as this would be inauspicious. They are only shaved on the same day on the occasion of the death of their father or mother. The widow of the deceased, and female relations, go three times round the corpse, before it is placed on the bier. Very often, at this stage, all the women present set up a loud lamentation, and repeat the death songs.92If the dead person was a respected elder, special professional women, trained as mourners, are engaged. I am informed that, in the Coimbatore district, and amongst the Sathyamangalam Brahacharanams, there are certain widows who are professional mourners. As soon as they hear of the death of an elder, they repair to the house, and worry the bereaved family into engaging them for a small fee. The space, which intervenes between the dead man’s house and the burning-ground, is divided into four parts. When the end of the first of these is reached, the corpse is placed on the ground, and the sons and nephews go round it, repeating mantrams. They untie their kudumis(hair knot), leaving part thereof loose, tie up the rest into a small bunch, and keep on slapping their thighs. [When children at play have their kudumi partially tied, and slap their thighs, they are invariably scolded, owing to the association with funerals.] A little cooked rice is offered to the path as a pathi bali (wayside offering), to propitiate evil spirits, or bhūthas. The same ceremonial should, strictly speaking, be performed at two other spots, but now-a-days it is the custom to place the corpse on the ground near the funeral pyre, moving its position three times, while the circumambulation and pathi bali are gone through only once. As soon as the corpse has reached the spot where the pyre is, the celebrant of the rites sprinkles water thereon, and throws a quarter of an anna on it as the equivalent of purchase of the ground for cremation. The sacred fire is lighted, and the right palm of the corpse is touched with a gold coin. The nine orifices of the body are then smeared with ghī, and rice is thrown over the corpse, and placed in its mouth. The son takes a burning brand from the sacred fire, lights the pyre, and looks at the sun. He then carries a pot filled with water, having a hole at the bottom through which the water trickles out, on his shoulders three times round the corpse, and, at the end of the third round, throws it down. Then he, and all the relations of the deceased, squat on the ground, facing east, take up some dharbha grass, and, cutting it into small fragments with their nails, scatter them in the air, while repeating some Vēdic verses, which are chanted very loudly and slowly, especially at the funeral of a respected elder. The celebrant then pours a little water on a stone, and sprinkles himself with it. This is also done by the other relations, and they pass beneath a bundle of dharbha grass and twigs ofFicus glomerataheld by the purōhit (officiatingpriest), and gaze for a moment at the sun. Once more they sprinkle themselves with water, and proceed to a tank, where they bathe. When they return home, two rites, called nagna (naked) srādh, and pāshāna sthāpanam (stone-fixing), are celebrated. The disembodied spirit is supposed to be naked after the body has been cremated. To clothe it, offerings of water, with balls of cooked rice, are made, and a cloth, lamp, and money are given to a Brāhman. Then two stones are set up, one in the house and the other on the bank of a tank, to represent the spirit of the deceased. For ten days, libations of water mixed with gingelly seeds, called tīlothakam, and a ball of cooked rice, must be offered to the stones. The ball of rice is left for crows to eat. The number of libations must be seventy-five, commencing with three on the first day, and increasing the number daily by one. In addition, three further libations are made daily by dipping a piece of cloth from the winding-sheet, and rinsing it over the stone (vasothakam). On the day after cremation, the relations assemble at the burning-ground, and the son, after extinguishing the burning embers, removes the fragments of bones from the ashes. The ceremony is called sanchyanam (gathering). Cooked food is offered. The bones are thrown into some sacred river, or buried in the ground. On the tenth day after death, a large quantity of cooked rice (prabhūthabali) is offered to the spirit of the dead person, which is believed to grow very hungry on that day. The food is heaped up on plantain leaves, and all the near relations go round them, crying and beating their breasts. It is mostly females who perform this rite, males standing aloof. The food is taken to a tank, and the widow, decorated and dressed up, is conducted thither. The food is thrown into the water, and, if the widow is an elderlyorthodox woman, her tāli is removed. On the same day, her head is clean shaved. A widow is not allowed to adorn herself with jewels and finery except on this day, when all her close relations come and see her. If this is not done, pregnant women may not see her for a year. All the agnates should be present on the tenth day, and perform tharpana (oblations of water). Until this day they are under pollution, and, after prabhūthabali, they bathe, and hōmam is performed. Some ashes from the sacred fire are mixed with ghī, and a mark is made on the foreheads of those who are under pollution, to remove it. During the period of pollution, a Sri Vaishnava will have only a white mark without the red streak on his forehead; a Mādhva will not have the black dot; and Smarthas avoid having marks altogether. The tenth day ceremony is called Dasāham. On the eleventh day, a ceremony called Ēkodishtam (eleventh day ceremony) is performed. A Brāhman is seated to represent the prētha or dead person, and fed after going through srādh rites. As a rule, the man is a close relation of the deceased. But, amongst certain classes of Brāhmans, an outsider is engaged, and well remunerated. On the twelfth day, the Sapindikaranam (sapinda, kinsman) ceremony, which is just like the ordinary srādh, is performed. At the close thereof, six balls of cooked rice are offered to three ancestors, male and female (three balls for males, and three for females). These balls are arranged in two rows, with a space between them. An elongated mass of food is placed between the rows, and divided with blades of dharbha grass into three portions, which are arranged close to the balls of rice. This is regarded as uniting the dead man with the pitris (ancestors). A cow is usually presented just before the union takes place, and the giftis believed to render the crossing of the river Vaitarani (river of death) easy for the departed soul. The Sapindikaranam is a very important ceremony. When there is a dispute concerning division of property on the death of an individual, the ceremony is not performed until the parties come to an agreement. For instance, if a married man dies without issue, and his widow’s brothers-in-law cannot come to terms as regards the partition of the property, the widow may refuse to allow the performance of the ceremony. The Sapindikaranam should, according to the shāstras, be performed a year after death,i.e., on the completion of all the Māsikas (monthly srādhs). But, at the present day, a ceremony called Shōdasam (the sixteen) is performed just before the Sapindikaranam on the twelfth day. In the course of the year, twelve monthly and four quarterly srādhs should be performed. The Shōdasam ceremony, which is carried out in lieu thereof, consists in giving presents of money and vessels to sixteen Brāhmans. On the twelfth day, a feast is held, and domestic worship is carried out on a large scale. At the close thereof, a slōka called Charma slōka, in praise of the deceased, is composed and repeated by some one versed in Sanskrit. Every month, for a year after a death in a family, srādh should, as indicated, be performed. This corresponds in detail with the annual srādh, which is regularly performed, unless a visit is paid to Gaya, which renders further performance of the rite not obligatory. For the performance of this ceremony by the nearest agnate of the deceased (eldest son or other), three Brāhmans should be called in, to represent respectively Vishnu, the Dēvatas, and the ancestors. Sometimes two Brāhmans are made to suffice, and Vishnu is represented by a sālagrāma stone. In extreme cases, only one Brāhmanassists at the ceremony, the two others being represented by dharbha grass. The sacred fire is lighted, and ghī, a small quantity of raw and cooked rice, and vegetables are offered up in the fire. The Brāhmans then wash their feet, and are fed. Before they enter the space set apart for the meal, water, gingelly, and rice are sprinkled about it, to keep off evil spirits. As soon as the meal is finished, a ball of rice, called vāyasa pindam (crow’s food), is offered to the pithru dēvatas (ancestors of three generations), and thrown to the crows. If they do not eat the rice, the omens are considered to be unfavourable. The Brāhmans receive betel and money in payment for their services. On one occasion my assistant was in camp at Kodaikānal on the Palni hills, the higher altitudes of which are uninhabited by crows, and he had perforce to march down to the plains, in order to perform the annual ceremony for his deceased father. The recurring annual srādh (Pratyābdhika) need not of necessity be performed. It is, however, regarded as an important ceremony, and, should an individual neglect it, he would run the risk of being excommunicated.The rites connected with the dead are based on the Garuda Purāna, according to which the libations of the ten days are said to help the growth of the body of the soul. In this connection, Monier Williams writes as follows:—93“On the first day, the ball (pinda) of rice offered by the eldest son or other near relative nourishes the spirit of the deceased in such a way as to furnish it with a head; on the second day, the offered pinda gives a neck and shoulders; on the third day a heart; on the fourth a back; on the fifth a navel; on the sixth a groinand the parts usually concealed; on the seventh thighs; on the eighth and ninth knees and feet. On the tenth day, the intermediate body is sufficiently formed to produce the sensation of hunger and thirst. Other pindas are therefore put before it, and, on the eleventh and twelfth days, the embodied spirit feeds voraciously on the offerings thus supplied, and so gains strength for its journey to its future abode. Then, on the thirteenth day after death, it is conducted either to heaven or hell. If to the latter, it has need of the most nourishing food, to enable it to bear up against the terrible ordeal which awaits it.”To the Hindu mind, Yama (the god of death) is a hideous god, whose servants are represented as being capable of tormenting the soul of the dead. “No sooner,” writes Monier Williams, “has death occurred, and cremation of the terrestrial body taken place, than Yama’s two messengers (Yama Dūtan), who are waiting near at hand, make themselves visible to the released spirit, which retains its subtle body composed of the subtle elements, and is said to be of the size of a thumb (angustha-mātra). Their aspect is terrific, for they have glaring eyes, hair standing erect, gnashing teeth, crow-black skin, and claw-like nails, and they hold in their hands the awful rod and noose of Yama. Then, as if their appearance in this form were not sufficiently alarming, they proceed to terrify their victim by terrible visions of the torments (yātana) in store for him. They then convey the bound spirit along the road to Yama’s abode. Being led before Yama’s judgment seat, it is confronted with his Registrar or Recorder named Chitra Gupta. This officer stands by Yama’s side, with an open book before him. It is his business to note down all the good and evil deeds ofevery human being born into the world, with the resulting merit (punya) and demerit (pāpa), and to produce a debtor and creditor account properly made up and balanced on the day when that being is brought before Yama. According to the balance on the side of merit or demerit is judgment pronounced. The road by which Yama’s two officers force a wicked man to descend to the regions of torment is described in the first two chapters of the Garuda Purāna. The length of the way is said to be 86,000 leagues (yojanas). The condemned soul, invested with its sensitive body, and made to travel at the rate of 200 leagues a day, finds no shady trees, no resting place, no food, no water. At one time it is scorched by a burning heat equal to that of twelve meridian suns, at another it is pierced by icy cold winds; now its tender frame is rent by thorns; now it is attacked by lions, tigers, savage dogs, venomous serpents, and scorpions. In one place it has to traverse a dense forest, whose leaves are swords; in another it falls into deep pits; in another it is precipitated from precipices; in another it has to walk on the edge of razors; in another on iron spikes. Here it stumbles about helplessly in profound darkness; there it struggles through loathsome mud swarming with leeches; here it toils through burning sand; there its progress is arrested by heaps of red-hot charcoal and stifling smoke. Compelled to pass through every obstacle, however formidable, it next encounters a succession of terrific showers, not of rain, but of live coals, stones, blood, boiling water and filth. Then it has to descend into appalling fissures, or ascend to sickening heights, or lose itself in vast caves, or wade through lakes seething with fœtid ordures. Then midway it has to pass the awful river Vaitarani, one hundred leagues in breadth, of unfathomable depth;flowing with irresistible impetuosity; filled with blood, matter, hair, and bones; infested with huge sharks, crocodiles, and sea monsters; darkened by clouds of hideous vultures and obscene birds of prey. Thousands of condemned spirits stand trembling on the banks, horrified by the prospect before them. Consumed by a raging thirst, they drink the blood which flows at their feet; then, tumbling headlong into the torrent, they are overwhelmed by the rushing waves. Finally, they are hurried down to the lowest depths of hell, and yet not destroyed. Pursued by Yama’s officers, they are dragged away, and made to undergo inconceivable tortures, the detail of which is given with the utmost minuteness in the succeeding chapters of the Garuda Purāna.”The Ahannikams, or daily observances, of a religious Brāhman are very many. Nowadays, Brāhmans who lead a purely religious life are comparatively few, and are mostly found in villages. The daily observances of such are the bath, the performance of the Sandhya service, Brahma yagna, Dēva pūja or Dēvatarchana, Tarpana (oblations of water), Vaisvadēva ceremony, and the reading of Purānas or Ithihāsas. Every orthodox Brāhman is expected to rise at the time called Brahma Muhūrtam in the hour and a half before sunrise. He should then clean his teeth, using as a brush mango leaf, or twigs ofAcacia arabicaor nīm (Melia Azadirachta). He next bathes in a river or tank (pond), standing knee-deep in the water, and repeating the following:—“I am about to perform the morning ablution in this sacred stream (Ganges, Sarasvati, Yamuna, Godāvari, etc.), in the presence of the gods and Brāhmans, with a view to the removal of guilt resulting from act, speech, and thought, from what has been touched and untouched, known and unknown, eaten and not eaten, drunk andnot drunk.” After the bath, he wipes his body with a damp cloth, and puts on his cotton madi cloth, which has been washed and dried. The cloth, washed, wrung, and hung up to dry, should not be touched by anybody. If this should happen prior to the bath, the cloth is polluted, and ceases to be madi. A silk cloth, which cannot be polluted, is substituted for it. The madi or silk cloth should be worn until the close of the morning ceremonies and meal. The man next puts the marks which are characteristic of his sect on the forehead and body, and performs the Sandhya service. This is very important, and is binding on all Brāhmans after the Upanayanam ceremony, though a large number are not particular in observing it. According to the shāstras, the Sandhya should be done in the morning and evening; but in practice there is an additional service at midday. Sandhyāvandhanam means the thanksgiving to God when day and night meet in the morning and evening. The rite commences with the sipping of water (āchamanam) from the hollow of the right palm. This is done three times, while the words Achyuthāyanamaha, Anantāyanamaha, and Govindāyana are repeated. Immediately after sipping, twelve parts of the body are touched with the fingers of the right hand in the following order:—
Indra—Sathakruthu, Vajranam, Sachipathi.Yama—Vaivaswata, Pithrupathi, Dharmarāja.Varuna—Prachethas, Apāmpathi, Swarūpinam.Sōman—Indum, Nisākaram, Ōshadīsam.
Indra—Sathakruthu, Vajranam, Sachipathi.
Yama—Vaivaswata, Pithrupathi, Dharmarāja.
Varuna—Prachethas, Apāmpathi, Swarūpinam.
Sōman—Indum, Nisākaram, Ōshadīsam.
Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.
Brāhman House with Marks of Hand to Ward Off the Evil Eye.
Nine kinds of grains soaked in water are placed in the seed-pans. These grains areDolichos Lablab(two varieties),Phaseolus Mungo(two varieties),Oryza sativa,Cicer Arietinum,Cajanus indicus,Eleusine Coracana, andVigna Catiang. The tying of the wrist-thread (pratisaram) is next proceeded with. Two cotton threads are laid on a vessel representing Varuna. After the recitation of Vēdic verses, the bridegroom takes one of the threads, and, dipping it in turmeric paste, holds it with his left thumb, smears some of the paste on it with his right thumb and forefinger, and ties it on the left wrist of the bride. The purōhit ties the other thread on the right wrist of the bridegroom, who, facing the assembly, says “I am going to take the bride.” He then recites the following Vēdic verse:—“Go to my future father-in-law with due precautions, and mingle with the members of his family. This marriage is sure to be pleasing to Indra, because he gets oblations of food, etc., after the marriage. May your path be smooth and free from thorns. May Sūrya and Bhaga promote our dhāmpathyam (companionship).”
The purōhit again proclaims the marriage, and the gōtras and names of three generations are repeated. Those assembled then bless the couple. The bride’s father says that he is prepared to give his daughter in marriage to the bridegroom, who states that he accepts her. The father of the bride washes the feet of the bridegroom placed on a tray with milk and water. The bridegroom then washes the feet of the bride’s father. The bride sits in her father’s lap, and her mother stands at her side. The father, repeating the names of the bridegroom’s ancestors for three generations, saysthat he is giving his daughter to him. He places the hand of the bride on that of the bridegroom, and both he and the bride’s mother pour water over the united hands of the contracting couple. The following slōka is repeated:—“I am giving you a virgin decorated with jewels, to enable me to obtain religious merit.” The bridegroom takes the bride by the hand, and both take their seats in front of the sacred fire. This part of the ceremonial is called dhāre (pouring of water). Much importance is attached to it by Tulu Brāhmans. Among Non-Brāhman castes in South Canara, it forms the binding portion of the marriage ceremony. After the pouring of ghī as an oblation, the bridegroom throws down a few twigs of dharbha grass, and repeats the formula:—“Oh! dharbha, thou art capable of giving royal powers, and the teacher’s seat. May I not be separated from thee.” Then the bride’s father, giving a vessel of water, says “Here is Arghya water.” The bridegroom receives it with the formula:—“May this water destroy my enemies. May brilliancy, energy, strength, life, renown, glory, splendour, and power dwell in me.” Once again the bride’s father washes the feet of the bridegroom, who salutes his father-in-law, saying “Oh! water, unite me with fame, splendour, and milk. Make me beloved by all creatures, the lord of cattle. May fame, heroism, and energy dwell in me.” The bride’s father pours some water from a vessel over the hand of the bridegroom, who says “To the ocean I send you, the imperishable waters; go back to your source. May I not suffer loss in my offspring. May my sap not be shed.” A mixture of honey, plantain fruit, and ghī, is given to the bridegroom by the bride’s father with the words “Ayam Madhuparko” (honey mixture). Receiving it, the bridegroom mutters thefollowing:—“What is the honeyed, highest form of honey which consists in the enjoyment of food; by that honeyed highest form of honey, may I become highest, honeyed, an enjoyer of food.” He partakes three times of the mixture, and says:—“I eat thee for the sake of brilliancy, luck, glory, power, and the enjoyment of food.” Then the bride’s father gives a cocoanut to the bridegroom, saying “Gauhu” (cow). The bridegroom receives it with the words “Oh! cow, destroy my sin, and that of my father-in-law.” According to the Grihya Sūtras, a cow should be presented to the bridegroom, to be cooked or preserved. Next a plantain fruit is given to the bridegroom, who, after eating a small portion of it, hands it to the bride. The bride sits on a heap or bundle of paddy (unhusked rice), and the bridegroom says “Oh! Varuna, bless her with wealth. May there be no ill-feeling between herself, her brothers and sisters. Oh! Brihaspathi, bless her that she may not lose her husband. Oh! Indra, bless her to be fertile. Oh! Savitha, bless her that she may be happy in all respects. Oh! girl, be gentle-eyed and friendly to me. Let your look be of such a nature as not to kill your husband. Be kind to me, and to my brothers.88May you shine with lustre, and be of good repute. Live long, and bear living children.” The pair are then seated, and the bridegroom, taking a blade of dharbha grass, passes it between the eyebrows of the bride, and throws it behind her, saying “With this dharbha grass I remove the evil influence of any bad mark thou mayst possess, which is likely to cause widowhood.” [Certain marks or curls (suli) forebode prosperity, and others misery to a family into which a girl entersby marriage. And, when a wealthy Hindu meditates purchasing a horse, he looks to the presence or absence of certain marks on particular parts of the body, and thereby forms a judgment of the temper and qualities of the animal.] The bridegroom then repeats the following:—“Now they ought to rejoice, and not cry. They have arranged our union to bring happiness to both of us. In view of the happiness we are to enjoy hereafter, they should be glad. This is a fitting occasion for rejoicing.” Four Brāhmans next bring water, and the bridegroom receives it, saying:—“May the evil qualities of this water disappear; may it increase. Let the Brāhmans bring water for the bath, and may it bring long life and children to her.” A bundle of paddy, or a basket filled therewith, is brought to the pandal. The bride sits on the paddy, and a ring of dharbha grass is placed on her head. The bridegroom repeats the formula “Blessed by the Sūrya, sit round the sacred fire, and look at the dharbha ring, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law.” A yoke is then brought, one end of which is placed on the head of the bride above the ring, and the following formula is repeated:—“Oh! Indra, cleanse and purify this girl, just as you did in the case of Abhala, by pouring water through three holes before marrying her.” Abhala was an ugly woman, who wished to marry Indra. To attain this end, she did penance for a long time, and, meeting Indra, requested him to fulfil her desire. Indra made her his wife, after transforming her into a beautiful woman by sprinkling water over her through the holes in the wheels of the car which was his vehicle. Into the hole of the yoke a gold coin, or the tāli (marriage badge), is dropped, with the words “May this gold prove a blessing to you. May the yoke, the hole of the yoke, bring happinessto you. May we be blessed to unite your body with mine.” Then the bridegroom, sprinkling water over the yoke and coin, says:—“May you become purified by the sun through this purificatory water. May this water, which is the cause of thunder and lightning, bring happiness to you. Oh! girl, may this water give you health and long life. A new and costly silk cloth (kūrai), purchased by the bridegroom, is given to the bride, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! Indra, listen to my prayers; accept them, and fulfil my desires.” The bride puts on the cloth, with the assistance of the bridegroom’s sister, and sits on her father’s lap. The bridegroom, taking up the tāli, ties it by the string on the bride’s neck, saying:—“Oh! girl, I am tying the tāli to secure religious merit.” This is not a Vēdic verse, and this part of the ceremony is not included in the Grihya Sūtras. All the Brāhmans assembled bless the couple by throwing rice over their heads. A dharbha waist-cord is passed round the waist of the bride, and the following is repeated:—“This girl is gazing at Agni, wishing for health, wealth, strength and children. I am binding her for her good.” The bridegroom then holds the hand of the bride, and both go to the sacred fire, where the former says:—“Let Sūrya lead to Agni, and may you obtain permission from the Aswins to do so. Go with me to my house. Be my wife, and the mistress of my house. Instruct and help me in the performance of sacrifices.” After offerings of ghī in the sacred fire, the bridegroom says:—“Sōma was your husband; Gandharva knew thee next; Agni was your third husband. I, son of man, am your fourth husband. Sōma gave you to Gandharva, and Gandharva gave you to Agni, who gave to me with progeny and wealth.” The bridegroom takes hold of the bride’sright wrist, and, pressing on the fingers, passes his hand over the united fingers three times. This is called Pānigrahanam. To the Nambūtiri Brāhman this is a very important item, being the binding part of the marriage ceremonial. Some years ago, at a village near Chalakkudi in the Cochin State, a Nambūtiri refused to accept a girl as his bride, because the purōhit inadvertently grasped her fingers, to show how it ought to be done at the time of the marriage ceremony. The purōhit had to marry the girl himself. The next item in the ceremonial is Sapthapathi, or the taking of the seven steps. This is considered as the most binding portion thereof. The bridegroom lifts the left foot of the bride seven times, repeating the following:—“One step for sap, may Vishnu go after thee. Two steps for juice, may Vishnu go after thee. Three steps for vows, may Vishnu go after thee. Four steps for comfort, may Vishnu go after thee. Five steps for cattle, may Vishnu go after thee. Six steps for the prospering of wealth, may Vishnu go after thee. Seven steps for the seven-fold hōtriship,89may Vishnu go after thee. With seven steps we have become companions. May I attain to friendship with thee. May I not be separated from thy friendship. Mayst thou not be separated from my friendship. Let us be united; let us always take counsel together with good hearts and mutual love. May we grow in strength and prosperity together. Now we are one in minds, deeds, and desires. Thou art Rik, I am Sāmam; I am the sky, thou art the earth; I am the semen, thou art the bearer; I am the mind, thou art the tongue. Follow me faithfully, that we may have wealth and children together. Come thou of sweetspeech.” The bridegroom then does hōmam, repeating the following:—“We are offering oblations to Sōma, Gandharva, and Agni. This girl has just passed her virginity. Make her leave her father’s house. Bless her to remain fixed in her husband’s house. May she have a good son by your blessing. Cause her to beget ten children, and I shall be the eleventh child. Oh! Agni, bless her with children, and make them long-lived. Oh! Varuna, I pray to you for the same thing. May this woman be freed from the sorrow arising out of sterility, and be blessed by Garhapathyāgni. May she have a number of children in her, and become the mother of many living children. Oh! girl, may your house never know lamentations during nights caused by deaths. May you live long and happy with your husband and children. May the sky protect thy back; may Vāyu strengthen your thighs; and the Aswins your breast. May Savitri look after thy suckling sons. Until the garment is put on, may Brihaspathi guard them, and the Viswedēvas afterwards. Oh! Varuna, make me strong and healthy. Do not steal away years from our ages. All those who offer oblations pray for the same. Oh! you all-pervading Agni, pacify Varuna; you who blaze forth into flames to receive oblations, be friendly towards us. Be near us, and protect us. Receive, and be satisfied with our oblations. Make us prosperous. We are always thinking of you. Take our oblations to the several dēvatas, and give us medicine.” The bride next treads on a stone, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! girl, tread on this stone. Be firm like it. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm. Overcome thy enemies.” Some fried paddy is put in the sacred fire, and the bridegroom repeats the following:—“Oh! Agni, I am offering the fried grains, so that this girl may beblessed with long life. Oh! Agni, give me my wife with children, just as in olden days you were given Sūryayi with wealth. Oh! Agni, bless my wife with lustre and longevity. Also bless her husband with long life, that she may live happily. Oh! Agni, help us to overcome our enemies.” Again the bride treads on the stone, and the bridegroom says:—“Oh! girl, tread on this stone, and be firm like it. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm. Overcome thy enemies.” This is followed by the offering of fried grain with the following formula:—“The virgins prayed to Sūrya and Agni to secure husbands, and they were at once granted their boons. Such an Agni is now being propitiated by offerings of fried paddy. Let him make the bride leave her father’s house.” For the third time, the bride treads on the stone, and fried paddy is offered with the formula:—“Oh! Agni, thou art the giver of life, and receiver of oblations. Oblations of ghī are now offered to you. Bless the pair to be of one mind.” The dharbha girdle is removed from the bride’s waist, with the verse: “I am loosening you from the bondage of Varuna. I am now removing the thread with which Sūrya bound you.” Those assembled then disperse. Towards evening, Brāhmans again assemble, and the bride and bridegroom sit before the sacred fire, while the former repeat several Vēdic riks. They are supposed to start for their home, driving in a carriage, and the verses repeated have reference to the chariot, horses, boats, etc. After ghī has been poured into the fire, a child, who should be a male who has not lost brothers or sisters, is seated in the lap of the bride, and the bridegroom says:—“May cows, horses, men, and wealth, increase in this house. Let this child occupy your lap, just as the Sōma creeper which gives strengthto the Dēvatas occupies the regions of the stars.” Giving some plantain fruit to the child, the bridegroom says:—“Oh! fruits, ye bear seeds. May my wife bear seeds likewise by your blessing.” Then the pair are shown Druva and Arundathi (the pole star and Ursa major), which are worshipped with the words:—“The seven Rishis who have led to firmness, she, Arundathi, who stands first among the six Krithikas (Pleiads), may she the eighth one, who leads the conjunction of the (moon with the) six Krithikas, the first (among conjunctions) shine upon us. Firm dwelling, firm origin; the firm one art thou, standing on the side of firmness. Thou art the pillar of the stars. Thus protect me against my adversaries.” They then proceed to perform the Sthālipāka ceremony, in which the bride should cook some rice, which the bridegroom offers as an oblation in the sacred fire. In practice, however, a little food is brought, and placed in the fire without being cooked. The purōhit decorates aFicusstick with dharbha grass, and gives it to the bridegroom. It is placed in the roof, or somewhere within the house, near the seed-pans. [According to the Grihya Sūtras, the couple ought to occupy the same mat, with the stick between them. This is not in vogue amongst several sections of Brāhmans. The Mysore Carnatakas, Mandya Aiyangars, and Shivallis, observe a kindred ceremony. Amongst the Mandyas, for example, on the fourth night of the marriage rites, the bridal couple occupy the same mat for a short time, and a stick is placed between them. The Pajamadmē, or mat marriage, amongst the Shivalli Brāhmans, evidently refers to this custom.] On the second and third days of the marriage ceremonies, hōmams are performed in the morning and evening, and the nalagu ceremony isperformed. In this, the couple are seated on two planks covered with mats and cloth, amidst a large number of women assembled within the pandal. In front of them, betel leaves, areca nuts, fruits, flowers, and turmeric paste are placed in a tray. The women sing songs which they have learnt from childhood, and the bride also sings the praises of the bridegroom. Taking a little of the turmeric paste rendered red by the addition of chunam (lime), she makes marks by drawing lines over the feet (nalangu idal). The ceremony closes with the waving of ārāthi (water coloured red with turmeric and chunam), and the distribution of pān-supāri (betel leaves and areca nuts). The waving is done by two women, who sing appropriate songs. On the fourth day, Brāhmans assemble, and the pair are seated in their midst. After the recitation of Vēdic verses, the contracting couple are blessed. A small quantity of turmeric paste, reddened by the addition of chunam, is mixed with ghī, and smeared over the shoulders of the pair, and a mark is made on their foreheads. This is called Pachchai Kalyānam, and is peculiar to Tamil Brāhmans, both Smarthas and Vaishnavas. Amongst Tamil Brāhmans, prominence is given to the maternal uncles on the fourth day. The bride and bridegroom are carried astride on the shoulders of their uncles, who dance to the strains of a band. When they meet, the couple exchange garlands (malaimāththal). Towards evening, a procession is got up at the expense of the maternal uncle of the bride, and is hence called Ammān Kōlam. The bride is dressed up as a boy, and another girl is dressed up to represent the bride. They are taken in procession through the streets, and, on their return, the pseudo-bridegroom is made to speak to the real bridegroom in somewhat insolent tones, and some mock play isindulged in. The real bridegroom is addressed as if he was the syce (groom) or gumastha (clerk) of the pseudo-bridegroom, and is sometimes treated as a thief, and judgment passed on him by the latter. Among Sri Vaishnavas, after the Pachchai smearing ceremony, the bridal couple roll a cocoanut to and fro across the dais, and the assembled Brāhmans chant stanzas in Tamil composed by a Vaishnava lady named Āndal, an avatar of Lakshmi, who dedicated herself to Vishnu. In these stanzas, she narrates to her attendants the dream, in which she went through the marriage ceremony after her dedication to the god. Pān-supāri, of which a little, together with some money, is set apart for Āndal, is then distributed to all present. A large crowd generally assembles, as it is believed that the chanting of Āndal’s srisukthi (praise of Lakshmi) brings a general blessing. The family priest calls out the names and gōtras of those who have become related to the bride and bridegroom through their marriage. As each person’s name is called out, he or she is supposed to make a present of cloths, money, etc., to the bridegroom or bride. [The Telugu and Carnataka Brāhmans, instead of the Pachchai Kalyānam, perform a ceremony called Nāgavali on the fourth or fifth day. Thirty-two lights and two vessels, representing Siva and Parvathi, are arranged in the form of a square. Unbleached thread, soaked in turmeric paste, is passed round the square, and tied to the pandal. The bridal couple sit in front of the square, and, after doing pūja (worship), cut the thread, and take their seats within the square. The bridegroom ties a tāli of black glass beads on the bride’s neck, in the presence of 33 crores (330 millions) of gods, represented by a number of small pots arranged round the square. Close to the pots are the figures of two elephants,designed in rice grains and salt respectively. After going round the pots, the couple separate, and the bridegroom stands by the salt elephant, and the bride by the other. They then talk about the money value of the two animals, and an altercation takes place, during which they again go round the pots, and stand, the bridegroom near the rice elephant, and the bride near the salt one. The bargaining as to the price of the animals is renewed, and the couple go round the pots once more. This ceremony is followed by a burlesque of domestic life. The bride is presented with two wooden dolls from Tirupati, and told to make a cradle out of the bridegroom’s turmeric-coloured cloth, which he wore on the tāli-tying day. The couple converse on domestic matters, and the bridegroom asks the bride to attend to her household affairs, so that he may go to his duties. She pleads her inability to do so because of the children, and asks him to take charge of them. She then shows the babies (dolls) to all present, and a good deal of fun is made out of the incident. The bride, with her mother standing by her side near two empty chairs, is then introduced to her new relations by marriage, who sit in pairs on the chairs, and make presents of pān-supāri and turmeric.] On the fifth day of the marriage ceremonies, before dawn, the bridal couple are seated on the dais, and the Gandharva stick is removed, with the words:—“Oh! Visvāwasu Gandharva, I pray to you to make this girl my wife. Unite her with me. Leave her, and seek another.” The bridegroom then performs hōmams. A coin is placed on the bride’s head, and a little ghī put thereon. Gazing at the bridegroom, she says:—“With a loving heart I regard thee who knowest my heart. Thou art radiant with tapas (penance). Fill me with a child, and this house of ourswith wealth. Thou art desirous of a son. Thus shalt thou reproduce thyself.” Looking at the bride, the bridegroom then says:—“I see thee radiant and eager to be filled with child by me. Thou art in thy youth now. Enjoy me, therefore, while I am over you, and so reproduce thyself, being desirous of a son.” Touching the bride’s breasts with his ring-finger, and then touching his heart, he repeats the following:—“May the Viswe gods unite our hearts; may the water unite our hearts; may Vāyu and Brahma unite our hearts; and may Sarasvati teach us both conversation appropriate to this occasion of our intercourse.” More Vēdic riks are then recited, as follows:—“Thou Prajāpathi, enter my body that I may have vigour during this act; so thou Thvastri, who fashionest forms with Vishnu and other gods; so thou Indra, who grantest boons with thy friends the Viswedēvas, by thy blessing may we have many sons. May Vishnu make thy womb ready; may Thvashtri frame the shape (of the child); may Prajāpathi pour forth (the sperm); may Dhatri give thee conception. Give conception, Sinivāli; give conception, Sarasvati. May the two Asvins, wreathed with lotus, give conception to thee. The embryo which the two Asvins produce with their golden kindling sticks, that embryo we call into thy womb, that thou mayst give birth to it after ten months. As the earth is pregnant with Agni, as the heaven is pregnant with Indra, as Vāyu dwells in the womb of the regions (of the earth), thus I place an embryo in thy womb. Open thy womb; take in the sperm. May a male child, an embryo, be begotten in the womb. The mother bears him ten months, may he be born, the most valiant of his kin. May a male embryo enter the womb, as an arrow the quiver; may a man be born here, thy son, after tenmonths. I do with thee (the work) that is sacred to Prajāpathi; may an embryo enter the womb. May a child be born without deficiency, with all its limbs, not blind, not lame, not sucked out by Pisāchas” (devils). The marriage is brought to a close, after this recitation, with the presentation of fruits, etc., to all the Brāhmans assembled, and to all relations, children included. The bridegroom chews betel for the first time on this day. The wrist-threads are removed, and the seed-pans containing the seedlings, which have been worshipped daily, are taken in procession to a tank (pond), into which the seedlings are thrown.
It will be noticed that prayers for male issue are of frequent occurrence during the marriage ceremonial. In Sanskrit works, Putra (son) is defined as one who delivers a parent from a hell called put. It is generally believed that the welfare of a parent’s soul depends on the performance of srādh (memorial services) by his son. It was laid down by Manu that a man is perfect, when he consists of three—himself, his wife, and his son. In the Rig Vēda it is stated that “when a father sees the face of a living son, he pays a debt in him, and gains immortality. The pleasure which a father has in his son exceeds all other enjoyments. His wife is a friend, his daughter an object of companion, his son shines as his light in the highest world.” The following story of a certain pious man of ascetical temperament, who determined to shirk the religious duty of taking a wife, is narrated by Monier Williams:—“Quietly skipping over the second prescribed period of life, during which he ought to have been a householder (grihastha), he entered at once upon the third period—that is to say, he became an ascetic, abjured all female society, and retired to the woods. Wandering about one day,absorbed in meditation, he was startled by an extraordinary spectacle. He saw before him a deep and apparently bottomless pit. Around its edge some unhappy men were hanging suspended by ropes of grass, at which here and there a rat was nibbling. On asking their history, he discovered to his horror that they were his own ancestors compelled to hang in this unpleasant manner, and doomed eventually to fall into the abyss, unless he went back into the world, did his duty like a man, married a suitable wife, and had a son, who would be able to release them from their critical predicament.” This legend is recorded in detail in the Mahābhārata.
A curious mock marriage ceremony is celebrated amongst Brāhmans when an individual marries a third wife. It is believed that a third marriage is very inauspicious, and that the bride will become a widow. To prevent this mishap, the man is made to marry the arka plant (Calotropis gigantea), and the real marriage thus becomes the fourth. If this ceremony is carried on in orthodox fashion, it is generally celebrated on some Sunday or Monday, when the constellation Astham is visible. The bridegroom and a Brāhman priest, accompanied by a third Brāhman, repair to a spot where the arka plant (a very common weed) is growing. The plant is decorated with a cloth and a piece of string, and symbolised into the sun. The bridegroom then invokes it thus:—“Oh! master of three lōks, Oh! the seven-horsed, Oh! Rāvi, avert the evils of the third marriage.” Next the plant is addressed with the words:—“You are the oldest of the plants of this world. Brahma created you to save such of us as have to marry a third time, so please become my wife.” The Brāhman who accompanies the bridegroom becomes his father-in-law for the moment, and says to him:—“I give you in marriageAditya’s great grand-daughter, Savi’s grand-daughter, and my daughter Arkakanya.” All the ceremonies, such as making hōmam, tāli-tying, etc., are performed as at a regular marriage, and, after the recitation of a few sentences from the Vēdas, the plant is cut down. “The plant,” Mr. A. Srinivasan writes,90“is named arka after the sun. When the car of the sun turns towards the north, every Hindu applies the leaves of this plant to his head before he bathes, in honour of the event. The plant is, besides, believed to be a willing scapegoat to others’ ills. Oil and ghī applied to the head of the victim of persistent illness has only to be transferred to this plant, when it withers and saves the man, even as Baber is said to have saved his son. The poet Kalidāsa describes sweet Sakuntala, born of a shaggy dweller of the forest, as a garland of jasmine thrown on an arka plant. ‘May the arka grow luxuriant in your house’ is the commonest form of curse. ‘Be thou belaboured with arka leaves’ is familiar in the mouths of reprimanding mothers. Adulterers were, half a century ago, seated on an ass, face to the tail, and marched through the village. The public disgrace was enhanced by placing a garland of the despised arka leaves on their head. [Uppiliyan women convicted of immorality are said to be garlanded with arka flowers, and made to carry a basket of mud round the village.] A Telugu proverb asks ‘Does the bee ever seek the arka flower?’ The reasons for the ill-repute that this plant suffers from are not at all clear. The fact that it has a partiality for wastes has evidently brought on its devoted head the dismal associations of desolation, but there would seem to be more deep-seated hatred to the plant than has beenexplained.” A Tamil proverb has it that he who crushes the bud of the arka earns merit. Some Telugu and Canarese Brāhmans, who follow the Yajur Vēda or Rig Vēda, consider the arka plant as sacred, and use the leaves thereof during the nāndhi (ancestor invoking) ceremony, which is performed as one of the marriage rites. Two or three arka leaves, with betel leaves and areca nuts, are tied to the cloth, which is attached to a stick as representing the ancestors (pithrus). With some the arka leaves are replaced by leaves ofPongamia glabra. On rathasapthami day (the seventh day after the new moon in the month Āvani), an orthodox Hindu should bathe his head and shoulders with arka leaves in propitiation of Sūrya (the sun). Brāhmans who follow the Sāma Vēda, during the annual upākarmam ceremony, make use of arka leaves and flowers in worshipping the Rishis and Pithrus. On the upākarmam day, the Sāma Vēdis invoke their sixty-two Rishis and the last three ancestors, who are represented by sixty-five clay balls placed on arka leaves. To them are offered arka flowers, fruits of karai-chedi (Canthium parviflorum), and nāval (Eugenia Jambolana). In addition to this worship, they perform the Rishi and Pithru tharpanam by offering water, gingelly (Sesamum indicum) seeds, and rice. The celebrant, prior to dipping his hand into the water, places in his hands two arka leaves, gingelly, and rice. The juice of the arka plant is a favourite agent in the hands of suicides. Among the Tangalān Paraiyans, if a young man dies before he is married, a ceremony called kannikazhithal (removing bachelorhood) is performed. Before the corpse is laid on the bier, a garland of arka flowers is placed round its neck, and balls of mud from a gutter are laid on the head, knees, and other parts of the body. In some places a variant of theceremony consists in the erection of a mimic marriage booth, which is covered with leaves of the arka plant, flowers of which are also placed round the neck as a garland. At a form of marriage called rambha or kathali (plantain) marriage, the arka plant is replaced by a plantain tree (Musa). It is performed by those who happen to be eldest brothers, and who are incapable of getting married, so as to give a chance to younger brothers, who are not allowed to marry unless the elder brother or brothers are already married.
At the present day, many Hindus disregard certain ceremonies, in the celebration of which their forefathers were most scrupulous. Even the daily ceremonial ablutions, which are all important to a Brāhman from a shāstraic point of view, are now neglected by a large majority, and the prayers (mantrams), which should be chanted during their performance, are forgotten. But no Brāhman, orthodox or unorthodox, dares to abandon the death ceremonial, and annual srādh (memorial rites). A Brāhman beggar, when soliciting alms, invariably pleads that he has to perform his father or mother’s srādh, or upanayanam (thread ceremony) of his children, and he rarely goes away empty-handed. “The constant periodical performance,” Monier Williams writes,91“of commemorative obsequies is regarded in the light of a positive and peremptory obligation. It is the simple discharge of a solemn debt to one’s forefathers, a debt consisting not only in reverential homage, but in the performance of acts necessary to their support, happiness, and progress onwards in the spiritual world. A man’s deceased relatives, for at least three generations, are among his cherished divinities, and must be honouredby daily offerings and adoration, or a nemesis of some kind is certain to overtake his living family. The object of a Hindu funeral is nothing less than the investiture of the departed spirit with an intermediate gross body—a peculiar frame interposed, as it were parenthetically, between the terrestrial gross body, which has just been destroyed by fire, and the new terrestrial body, which it is compelled to ultimately assume. The creation of such an intervenient frame, composed of gross elements, though less gross than those of earth, becomes necessary, because the individualised spirit of man, after the cremation of the terrestrial body, has nothing left to withhold it from re-absorption into the universal soul, except its incombustible subtle body, which, as composed of the subtle elements, is not only proof against the fire of the funeral pile, but is incapable of any sensations in the temporary heaven, or temporary hell, through one or other of which every separate human spirit is forced to pass before returning to earth, and becoming re-invested with a terrestrial gross body.”
When a Brāhman is on the point of death, he is removed from his bed, and laid on the floor. If there is any fear of the day being a danishtapanchami (inauspicious), the dying man is taken out of the house, and placed in the court-yard or pial (raised verandah). Some prayers are uttered, and a cow is presented (gōdhanam). These are intended to render the passage of life through the various parts of the body as easy as possible. The spirit is supposed to escape through one of the nine orifices of the body, according to the character of the individual concerned. That of a good man leaves the body through the brahmarandhra (top of the skull), and that of a bad man through the anus. Immediately after death, the body is washed, religious marks are made onthe forehead, and parched paddy and betel are scattered over and around it by the son. As a Brāhman is supposed always to have his fire with him, the sacred fire is lighted. At this stage, certain purificatory ceremonies are performed, if death has taken place on a day or hour of evil omen, or at midnight. Next, a little cooked rice is cooked in a new earthen pot, and a new cloth is thrown over the corpse, which is roused by the recitation of mantrams. Four bearers, to each of whom dharbha grass is given in token of his office, are selected to carry the corpse to the burning-ground. The eldest son, who is the funeral celebrant, and his brothers are shaved. On ordinary occasions, brothers should not be shaved on the same day, as this would be inauspicious. They are only shaved on the same day on the occasion of the death of their father or mother. The widow of the deceased, and female relations, go three times round the corpse, before it is placed on the bier. Very often, at this stage, all the women present set up a loud lamentation, and repeat the death songs.92If the dead person was a respected elder, special professional women, trained as mourners, are engaged. I am informed that, in the Coimbatore district, and amongst the Sathyamangalam Brahacharanams, there are certain widows who are professional mourners. As soon as they hear of the death of an elder, they repair to the house, and worry the bereaved family into engaging them for a small fee. The space, which intervenes between the dead man’s house and the burning-ground, is divided into four parts. When the end of the first of these is reached, the corpse is placed on the ground, and the sons and nephews go round it, repeating mantrams. They untie their kudumis(hair knot), leaving part thereof loose, tie up the rest into a small bunch, and keep on slapping their thighs. [When children at play have their kudumi partially tied, and slap their thighs, they are invariably scolded, owing to the association with funerals.] A little cooked rice is offered to the path as a pathi bali (wayside offering), to propitiate evil spirits, or bhūthas. The same ceremonial should, strictly speaking, be performed at two other spots, but now-a-days it is the custom to place the corpse on the ground near the funeral pyre, moving its position three times, while the circumambulation and pathi bali are gone through only once. As soon as the corpse has reached the spot where the pyre is, the celebrant of the rites sprinkles water thereon, and throws a quarter of an anna on it as the equivalent of purchase of the ground for cremation. The sacred fire is lighted, and the right palm of the corpse is touched with a gold coin. The nine orifices of the body are then smeared with ghī, and rice is thrown over the corpse, and placed in its mouth. The son takes a burning brand from the sacred fire, lights the pyre, and looks at the sun. He then carries a pot filled with water, having a hole at the bottom through which the water trickles out, on his shoulders three times round the corpse, and, at the end of the third round, throws it down. Then he, and all the relations of the deceased, squat on the ground, facing east, take up some dharbha grass, and, cutting it into small fragments with their nails, scatter them in the air, while repeating some Vēdic verses, which are chanted very loudly and slowly, especially at the funeral of a respected elder. The celebrant then pours a little water on a stone, and sprinkles himself with it. This is also done by the other relations, and they pass beneath a bundle of dharbha grass and twigs ofFicus glomerataheld by the purōhit (officiatingpriest), and gaze for a moment at the sun. Once more they sprinkle themselves with water, and proceed to a tank, where they bathe. When they return home, two rites, called nagna (naked) srādh, and pāshāna sthāpanam (stone-fixing), are celebrated. The disembodied spirit is supposed to be naked after the body has been cremated. To clothe it, offerings of water, with balls of cooked rice, are made, and a cloth, lamp, and money are given to a Brāhman. Then two stones are set up, one in the house and the other on the bank of a tank, to represent the spirit of the deceased. For ten days, libations of water mixed with gingelly seeds, called tīlothakam, and a ball of cooked rice, must be offered to the stones. The ball of rice is left for crows to eat. The number of libations must be seventy-five, commencing with three on the first day, and increasing the number daily by one. In addition, three further libations are made daily by dipping a piece of cloth from the winding-sheet, and rinsing it over the stone (vasothakam). On the day after cremation, the relations assemble at the burning-ground, and the son, after extinguishing the burning embers, removes the fragments of bones from the ashes. The ceremony is called sanchyanam (gathering). Cooked food is offered. The bones are thrown into some sacred river, or buried in the ground. On the tenth day after death, a large quantity of cooked rice (prabhūthabali) is offered to the spirit of the dead person, which is believed to grow very hungry on that day. The food is heaped up on plantain leaves, and all the near relations go round them, crying and beating their breasts. It is mostly females who perform this rite, males standing aloof. The food is taken to a tank, and the widow, decorated and dressed up, is conducted thither. The food is thrown into the water, and, if the widow is an elderlyorthodox woman, her tāli is removed. On the same day, her head is clean shaved. A widow is not allowed to adorn herself with jewels and finery except on this day, when all her close relations come and see her. If this is not done, pregnant women may not see her for a year. All the agnates should be present on the tenth day, and perform tharpana (oblations of water). Until this day they are under pollution, and, after prabhūthabali, they bathe, and hōmam is performed. Some ashes from the sacred fire are mixed with ghī, and a mark is made on the foreheads of those who are under pollution, to remove it. During the period of pollution, a Sri Vaishnava will have only a white mark without the red streak on his forehead; a Mādhva will not have the black dot; and Smarthas avoid having marks altogether. The tenth day ceremony is called Dasāham. On the eleventh day, a ceremony called Ēkodishtam (eleventh day ceremony) is performed. A Brāhman is seated to represent the prētha or dead person, and fed after going through srādh rites. As a rule, the man is a close relation of the deceased. But, amongst certain classes of Brāhmans, an outsider is engaged, and well remunerated. On the twelfth day, the Sapindikaranam (sapinda, kinsman) ceremony, which is just like the ordinary srādh, is performed. At the close thereof, six balls of cooked rice are offered to three ancestors, male and female (three balls for males, and three for females). These balls are arranged in two rows, with a space between them. An elongated mass of food is placed between the rows, and divided with blades of dharbha grass into three portions, which are arranged close to the balls of rice. This is regarded as uniting the dead man with the pitris (ancestors). A cow is usually presented just before the union takes place, and the giftis believed to render the crossing of the river Vaitarani (river of death) easy for the departed soul. The Sapindikaranam is a very important ceremony. When there is a dispute concerning division of property on the death of an individual, the ceremony is not performed until the parties come to an agreement. For instance, if a married man dies without issue, and his widow’s brothers-in-law cannot come to terms as regards the partition of the property, the widow may refuse to allow the performance of the ceremony. The Sapindikaranam should, according to the shāstras, be performed a year after death,i.e., on the completion of all the Māsikas (monthly srādhs). But, at the present day, a ceremony called Shōdasam (the sixteen) is performed just before the Sapindikaranam on the twelfth day. In the course of the year, twelve monthly and four quarterly srādhs should be performed. The Shōdasam ceremony, which is carried out in lieu thereof, consists in giving presents of money and vessels to sixteen Brāhmans. On the twelfth day, a feast is held, and domestic worship is carried out on a large scale. At the close thereof, a slōka called Charma slōka, in praise of the deceased, is composed and repeated by some one versed in Sanskrit. Every month, for a year after a death in a family, srādh should, as indicated, be performed. This corresponds in detail with the annual srādh, which is regularly performed, unless a visit is paid to Gaya, which renders further performance of the rite not obligatory. For the performance of this ceremony by the nearest agnate of the deceased (eldest son or other), three Brāhmans should be called in, to represent respectively Vishnu, the Dēvatas, and the ancestors. Sometimes two Brāhmans are made to suffice, and Vishnu is represented by a sālagrāma stone. In extreme cases, only one Brāhmanassists at the ceremony, the two others being represented by dharbha grass. The sacred fire is lighted, and ghī, a small quantity of raw and cooked rice, and vegetables are offered up in the fire. The Brāhmans then wash their feet, and are fed. Before they enter the space set apart for the meal, water, gingelly, and rice are sprinkled about it, to keep off evil spirits. As soon as the meal is finished, a ball of rice, called vāyasa pindam (crow’s food), is offered to the pithru dēvatas (ancestors of three generations), and thrown to the crows. If they do not eat the rice, the omens are considered to be unfavourable. The Brāhmans receive betel and money in payment for their services. On one occasion my assistant was in camp at Kodaikānal on the Palni hills, the higher altitudes of which are uninhabited by crows, and he had perforce to march down to the plains, in order to perform the annual ceremony for his deceased father. The recurring annual srādh (Pratyābdhika) need not of necessity be performed. It is, however, regarded as an important ceremony, and, should an individual neglect it, he would run the risk of being excommunicated.
The rites connected with the dead are based on the Garuda Purāna, according to which the libations of the ten days are said to help the growth of the body of the soul. In this connection, Monier Williams writes as follows:—93“On the first day, the ball (pinda) of rice offered by the eldest son or other near relative nourishes the spirit of the deceased in such a way as to furnish it with a head; on the second day, the offered pinda gives a neck and shoulders; on the third day a heart; on the fourth a back; on the fifth a navel; on the sixth a groinand the parts usually concealed; on the seventh thighs; on the eighth and ninth knees and feet. On the tenth day, the intermediate body is sufficiently formed to produce the sensation of hunger and thirst. Other pindas are therefore put before it, and, on the eleventh and twelfth days, the embodied spirit feeds voraciously on the offerings thus supplied, and so gains strength for its journey to its future abode. Then, on the thirteenth day after death, it is conducted either to heaven or hell. If to the latter, it has need of the most nourishing food, to enable it to bear up against the terrible ordeal which awaits it.”
To the Hindu mind, Yama (the god of death) is a hideous god, whose servants are represented as being capable of tormenting the soul of the dead. “No sooner,” writes Monier Williams, “has death occurred, and cremation of the terrestrial body taken place, than Yama’s two messengers (Yama Dūtan), who are waiting near at hand, make themselves visible to the released spirit, which retains its subtle body composed of the subtle elements, and is said to be of the size of a thumb (angustha-mātra). Their aspect is terrific, for they have glaring eyes, hair standing erect, gnashing teeth, crow-black skin, and claw-like nails, and they hold in their hands the awful rod and noose of Yama. Then, as if their appearance in this form were not sufficiently alarming, they proceed to terrify their victim by terrible visions of the torments (yātana) in store for him. They then convey the bound spirit along the road to Yama’s abode. Being led before Yama’s judgment seat, it is confronted with his Registrar or Recorder named Chitra Gupta. This officer stands by Yama’s side, with an open book before him. It is his business to note down all the good and evil deeds ofevery human being born into the world, with the resulting merit (punya) and demerit (pāpa), and to produce a debtor and creditor account properly made up and balanced on the day when that being is brought before Yama. According to the balance on the side of merit or demerit is judgment pronounced. The road by which Yama’s two officers force a wicked man to descend to the regions of torment is described in the first two chapters of the Garuda Purāna. The length of the way is said to be 86,000 leagues (yojanas). The condemned soul, invested with its sensitive body, and made to travel at the rate of 200 leagues a day, finds no shady trees, no resting place, no food, no water. At one time it is scorched by a burning heat equal to that of twelve meridian suns, at another it is pierced by icy cold winds; now its tender frame is rent by thorns; now it is attacked by lions, tigers, savage dogs, venomous serpents, and scorpions. In one place it has to traverse a dense forest, whose leaves are swords; in another it falls into deep pits; in another it is precipitated from precipices; in another it has to walk on the edge of razors; in another on iron spikes. Here it stumbles about helplessly in profound darkness; there it struggles through loathsome mud swarming with leeches; here it toils through burning sand; there its progress is arrested by heaps of red-hot charcoal and stifling smoke. Compelled to pass through every obstacle, however formidable, it next encounters a succession of terrific showers, not of rain, but of live coals, stones, blood, boiling water and filth. Then it has to descend into appalling fissures, or ascend to sickening heights, or lose itself in vast caves, or wade through lakes seething with fœtid ordures. Then midway it has to pass the awful river Vaitarani, one hundred leagues in breadth, of unfathomable depth;flowing with irresistible impetuosity; filled with blood, matter, hair, and bones; infested with huge sharks, crocodiles, and sea monsters; darkened by clouds of hideous vultures and obscene birds of prey. Thousands of condemned spirits stand trembling on the banks, horrified by the prospect before them. Consumed by a raging thirst, they drink the blood which flows at their feet; then, tumbling headlong into the torrent, they are overwhelmed by the rushing waves. Finally, they are hurried down to the lowest depths of hell, and yet not destroyed. Pursued by Yama’s officers, they are dragged away, and made to undergo inconceivable tortures, the detail of which is given with the utmost minuteness in the succeeding chapters of the Garuda Purāna.”
The Ahannikams, or daily observances, of a religious Brāhman are very many. Nowadays, Brāhmans who lead a purely religious life are comparatively few, and are mostly found in villages. The daily observances of such are the bath, the performance of the Sandhya service, Brahma yagna, Dēva pūja or Dēvatarchana, Tarpana (oblations of water), Vaisvadēva ceremony, and the reading of Purānas or Ithihāsas. Every orthodox Brāhman is expected to rise at the time called Brahma Muhūrtam in the hour and a half before sunrise. He should then clean his teeth, using as a brush mango leaf, or twigs ofAcacia arabicaor nīm (Melia Azadirachta). He next bathes in a river or tank (pond), standing knee-deep in the water, and repeating the following:—“I am about to perform the morning ablution in this sacred stream (Ganges, Sarasvati, Yamuna, Godāvari, etc.), in the presence of the gods and Brāhmans, with a view to the removal of guilt resulting from act, speech, and thought, from what has been touched and untouched, known and unknown, eaten and not eaten, drunk andnot drunk.” After the bath, he wipes his body with a damp cloth, and puts on his cotton madi cloth, which has been washed and dried. The cloth, washed, wrung, and hung up to dry, should not be touched by anybody. If this should happen prior to the bath, the cloth is polluted, and ceases to be madi. A silk cloth, which cannot be polluted, is substituted for it. The madi or silk cloth should be worn until the close of the morning ceremonies and meal. The man next puts the marks which are characteristic of his sect on the forehead and body, and performs the Sandhya service. This is very important, and is binding on all Brāhmans after the Upanayanam ceremony, though a large number are not particular in observing it. According to the shāstras, the Sandhya should be done in the morning and evening; but in practice there is an additional service at midday. Sandhyāvandhanam means the thanksgiving to God when day and night meet in the morning and evening. The rite commences with the sipping of water (āchamanam) from the hollow of the right palm. This is done three times, while the words Achyuthāyanamaha, Anantāyanamaha, and Govindāyana are repeated. Immediately after sipping, twelve parts of the body are touched with the fingers of the right hand in the following order:—