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
the cardinal points of the compass, to the earth, and to the sky. A
small earthen pot containing rice, a cocoanut, betel, and areca nuts,
is placed near the girl. Into this a variety of articles, each tied
up separately in a piece of plantain leaf, are placed. These consist
of a gold coin, a silver coin, salt, rice, paddy, turmeric, charcoal,
and pieces of an old cadjan leaf from the thatch of the house. The
mouth of the pot is then covered over with a plantain leaf tied with
string. The girl sprinkles rice three times over the pot, makes a hole
in the leaf, and picks out one of the articles, which is examined
as an augur of her destiny. Betel leaves and areca nuts are then
passed twice round her head, and thrown away. She next twists off a
cocoanut from a bunch hanging at a corner of the pandal. Then follows
the presentation of cloths called mantra-kodi. These must be new,
and of a particular kind. Each of her relations throws one of these
cloths over the girl's head. Half of them (perhaps ten or twelve)
go to the barber, who, at this point, pours cocoanut water from the
leaf of a banyan tree on her head, on which a silver and copper coin
have been placed. The astrologer is then asked whether it is time
to tie the tali, and replies three times in the affirmative. The
barber woman hands the tali strung on a thread to the girl's uncle's
wife, who ties it round the girl's neck. The barber woman then pours
water on the girl's hands. Three times the water is flung upwards,
and then to the east, west, south, and north. A cotton wick, steeped
in oil, is then twisted round a piece of bamboo, and stuck on a young
cocoanut. The girl is asked if she sees the sun, looks at the lighted
wick, and says that she does. She is then taken to a cocoanut tree,
preceded by the lamp, etc. She walks three times round the tree,
and pours water over the root. The ceremony is now concluded, and
the girl is marched back to the middle room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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