The bride is then sprinkled with holy water by her father and four other Nambudiris. The tali or marriage symbol is brought in a brass vessel containing holy water, and laid near the idol to which the daily domestic worship is paid; and, after further offerings to Ganapathi, the bridegroom is summoned to enter the illam. Before doing so he purifies himself, taking off the darbha ring, making the 'caste marks' with holy ashes (bhasmam), washing his feet, replacing the ring, and being sprinkled with holy water by four Nambudiris--a form of ritual which recurs constantly in all ceremonies. He enters the nadumittam, preceded by a Nambudiri carrying a lighted lamp, and takes his seat on a wooden stool (pidam) in the middle of the court where the bride's father makes obeisance to him, and is given four double lengths of cloth (kaccha), which the bridegroom has brought with him. They are taken to the bride, who puts on two of them, and returns two for the bridegroom to wear. The bridegroom then goes to the kizhakkini, where he prepares what may be called the "altar." He smears part of the floor in front of him with cow-dung and then, with a piece of jack-wood (Artocarpus integrifolia), called sakalam, draws a line at the western side of the place so prepared, and at right angles to this line five more, one at each end, but not actually touching it, and three between these. He then places the pieces of jack-wood on the altar, and ignites it with fire brought from the hearth of the bride's illam. He feeds the flame with chips of plasu or chamatha (Butea frondosa). This fire is the aupasana agni, regarded as the witness to the marriage rite. It must be kept alight--not actually, but by a pious fiction [102]--till the parties to the marriage die, and their funeral pyre must be kindled from it. Three pieces of plasu called paridhi, and eighteen pieces called udhmam, tied together by a string of darbha, are placed on the northern side of the altar on two pieces of jack-wood; and there are also brought and placed round the altar four blades of darbha grass, a small bell-metal vessel, an earthenware pot full of water, a pair of grind-stones (ammi and ammikuzha), a small winnowing fan containing parched paddy (malar), and a copper vessel of ghee (clarified butter) with a sacrificial ladle made of plasu. Meanwhile, the bride's father ties the tali round her neck in the vadakkini, and her mother gives her a garland of tulasi (Ocimum sanctum). She is conducted to the kizhakkini, preceded by a Nambutiri carrying a lamp called ayyira tiri (thousand wicks), and is made to stand facing the bridegroom on the north or north-east of the altar. This is called mukha-dharsanam (face-beholding). She gives the garland to the bridegroom. Now comes the central rite of this elaborate ceremonial, the udaga-purva-kannyaka-dhanam, or gift of a maiden with water. The bride and her father stand facing west, and the bridegroom facing them.