chance of recurring birth, and has only to be remembered and worshipped, unlike the ordinary Jivan or still enslaved soul, whose salvation interests have to be furthered by propitiatory Karmas on the part of its earthly beneficiaries. (6) Regulation of women's conduct.--Women are not to gaze on any face but that of their wedded lord, and never go out unattended. They are to wear only white clothes, and are never to pierce their noses for the wearing of jewelry. Death on the husband's funeral pyre is not to be the sacred duty of the Nambutiri widow, who is advised to seek in the life of a self-sacrificing Sanyasi a sure means of salvation. In affairs of the world, time is reckoned by the ordinary Malabar kollam or solar year, the era beginning from the date of the departure of the last Perumal, a sovereign of the western coast, to Arabia in 825. The months of the kollam year are Mesha (Metam), Vrishabha (Itavam), Mithuna, Karkkataka, Sihma (Chingga), Kanya (Kanni), Tula, Vrischika, Dhanu, Makara, Kumbha, Mina. In affairs of religion, time is reckoned by the salivahana saka, or lunar year, the months of which are Chaitra, Vaisakha, Jeshta, Ashadha, Sravana, Bhadrapata, Asvavuja, Margasirsha, Paushya, Magha, Phalguna. Every three years or thereabouts, there is added another month, called Adhika. Some of the festivals kept by the Nambutiris are as follows: -- (1) Sivaratri.--Worship of Siva on the last day of Magha. Fast and vigil at night, and puja. (2) Upakarma.--The regular day for putting on a new sacred thread, after having cleansed away the sins of the year through the prayaschittam, in which ceremony the five sacred products of the cow (milk, curds, ghi, urine, and dung) are partaken of. It is done on the 15th of Sravana. (3) Nagara panchimi.--The serpent god is worshipped, and bathed in milk. On the 5th of Sravana. This festival is common in Southern India. (4) Gokulashtami.--Fast and vigil at night, to celebrate the birth of Krishna. Puja at night, on the eighth day of the latter half of Sravana. (5) Navaratri.--The first nine days of Asvayuja are devoted to this festival in honour of Durga. (6) Dipavali.--Observed more particularly in North Malabar on the anniversary of the day on which Krishna slew the rakshasa Naraka. Everyone takes an oil bath. On the last day of Asvayuja. (7) Ashtkalam.--The pitris (ancestors) of the family are propitiated by offerings of pinda (balls of rice) and tarpana (libations of water). On the new moon day of Dhanu. (8) Vinayaka Chaturthi.--The elephant-headed god of learning is worshipped. At the end of the ceremony, the idol is dropped into a well. On the 4th of Bhadrapada. (9) Puram.--The god of love, represented by a clay image, is propitiated by unmarried girls with offerings of flowers seven days successively.