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
sit on and new cloth to wear before he seats himself in the verandah,
are given an ear-ring such as is worn by Tiyan women, a silk cloth, a
white cotton cloth, and a few annas. If the deceased has been cremated
he is given six fanams, and, if buried, five fanams as the fee for
his priestly offices. On an occasion of this kind, several barbers,
male and female, turn up in the hope of receiving presents. All who
help during the various stages of the ceremonial are treated in much
the same way, but the senior barber alone receives the officiating
fee. It is odd that the barbers of the four surrounding villages are
entitled to receive gifts of new cloths and money. Those under death
pollution are forbidden to eat fish or flesh, chew betel, or partake
of jaggery. The restriction is removed on the pula-kuli day. The last
act for their removal is as follows. The barber is required to eat some
jaggery, and drink some conjee. After this, the eldest son, the Tandan,
and a neighbour, sit on a mat spread in the middle of the house,
and formally partake of conjee and jaggery. The pula-kuli is then over.
It is a sacred duty to a deceased person who was one of importance,
for example the head of a family, to have a silver image of him
made, and arrange for it being deposited in some temple, where it
will receive its share of puja (worship), and offerings of food and
water. The new-moon day of the months Karkitakam (July-August), Tulam
(October-November), and Kumbham (February-March) is generally selected
for doing this. The temples at Tirunelli in Wynad and Tirunavayi, which
are among the oldest in Malabar, were generally the resting-places of
these images, but now some of the well-to-do deposit them much further
afield, even at Benares and Ramesvaram. A silver image is presented
to the local Siva temple, where, for a consideration, puja is done
every new-moon day. On each of these days, mantrams are supposed to
be repeated a thousand times. When the image has been the object of
these mantrams sixteen thousand times, it is supposed to have become
eligible for final deposit in a temple. It is this image which rests
in the temple at Tirunavayi, or elsewhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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