Vaidikas live permanently, one of the six recognised Vaidikas has to accompany the Smarta to the place of the vicharana (enquiry), and the Smarta merely conducts the enquiry as the proxy of, and authorised and guided by the Vaidikas. Generally the council assembles at some neighbouring village temple. The suspected woman is placed within the anchampura, and her maid-servant stands at the door. All questions are addressed to her, as the gosha of the suspect has to be honoured in its entirety until the pronouncement of the final verdict. The procedure begins, not by the framing and reading out of a charge-sheet, but by arranging for the suspicion being brought to notice by the accused person herself. For this purpose, the Smarta makes a feint of entering the isolation shed, as if in ignorance of everything that has transpired. The maid-servant stops him, and informs him that her mistress is within. The Smarta, on hearing this, affects astonishment, and asks her the reason why her mistress should not be in the main building (antahpuram). With this question, the enquiry may be said to have actually begun. The next morning by eleven o'clock, the Smarta and his co-adjutors again go and stand beside the isolation hut, and, calling for the maid-servant, commence the regular enquiry. After about five o'clock in the afternoon, the Smarta, in the presence of the Akakkoyimma, relates the whole day's proceedings to the Mimamsakas, and takes their opinion as to the questions for the next day. The enquiry often lasts for months, and sometimes even for years. It is the most expensive undertaking possible, as the whole judicatory staff has to be maintained by the family, unless the sadhanam or subject gives a circumstantial confession of her guilt. It is not enough to plead guilty; she must point out all the persons who have been partakers in her guilt. Thus every day the Smarta asks "Are there any more?" After the completion of the enquiry, the council re-assembles at the village temple. The guardian of the suspect presents himself before the assembled Brahmans, and makes the customary obeisance. The Smarta then recounts the details of the enquiry, and ultimately pronounces his verdict. If the woman is declared innocent, she is re-accepted amidst universal rejoicings, and the head of the family feels amply repaid for the expenditure he has incurred in the reputation for chastity secured for a member of his family under such a severe ordeal. If things do not end so well, all the Brahmans come out of the temple and re-assemble, when a Brahman, who is usually not a Nambutiri, as the Nambutiris do not desire to condemn one of their own caste, stands up, and in a stentorian voice repeats the substance of the charge, and the judgment as given by the Smarta. The guardian of the woman then goes away, after she has been handed over by the Smarta to the custody of the Purakkoyimma. The guardian bathes, and performs all the