Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7Thurston, Edgar
General
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
In some places, the Valluvans, at their marriages, like the Pallis
and some other castes, use the pandamutti, or pile of pots reaching
to the top of the pandal.
The Saivite lingam wearers bury their dead in a sitting posture in
a niche excavated in the side of the grave. After death has set in,
a cocoanut is broken, and camphor burnt. The corpse is washed by
relations, who bring nine pots of water for the purpose. The lingam
is tied on to the head, and a cloth bundle, containing a rupee, seven
bilva (Ægle Marmelos) leaves, nine twigs of the tulsi (Ocimum sanctum),
and nine Leucas aspera flowers, to the right arm. The corpse is carried
to the grave on a car surmounted by five brass vessels. The grave is
purified by the sprinkling of cow's urine and cow-dung water before the
corpse is lowered into it. On the way to the burial-ground, the priest
keeps on chanting various songs, such as "This is Kailasa. This is
Kailasa thillai (Chidambaram). Our request is this. Nallia Mutthan
of the Nandidarma gotra died on Thursday in the month Thai in
the year Subakruthu. He must enter the fourth stage (sayichyam),
passing through Salokam, Samipa, and Sarupa. He crosses the rivers
of stones, of thorns, of fire, and of snakes, holding the tail of
the bull Nandi. To enable him to reach heaven safely, we pound rice,
and put lights of rice." The priest receives a fee for his services,
which he places before an image made on the grave after it has been
filled in. The money is usually spent in making a sacred bull, lingam,
or stone slab, to place on the grave. On the third day after death,
the female relatives of the deceased pour milk within the house into
a vessel, which is taken by the male relatives to the burial-ground,
and offered at the grave, which is cleaned. A small platform, made
of mud, and composed of several tiers, decreasing in size from below
upwards, is erected thereon, and surmounted by a lingam. At the north
and south corners of this platform, a bull and paradesi (mendicant)
made of mud are placed, and at each corner leaves are laid, on which
the offerings in the form of rice, fruits, vegetables, etc., are
laid. The final death ceremonies are celebrated on the seventeenth
day. A pandal (booth) is set up, and closed in with cloths. Within
it are placed a pot and five pestles and mortars, to which threads
are tied. Five married women, taking hold of the pestles, pound some
rice contained in the pot, and with the flour make a lamp, which is
placed on a tray. The eldest son of the deceased goes, with the lamp
on his head, to an enclosure having an entrance at the four cardinal
points. The enclosure is either a permanent one with mud walls, or
temporary one made out of mats. Within the enclosure, five pots are
set up in the centre, and four at each side. The pots are cleansed
by washing them with the urine of cows of five different colours,
red, white, black, grey, and spotted. Near the pots the articles
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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