Generally, in the Konkan districts, opprobrious names are given to children when they are sickly, always crying, and weak, or when they are short lived. These names are Marya, Rodya, Kerya, etc. It is believed that children improve in health when called by such opprobrious names. [632] Opprobrious names such as Dhondu, Kondu, Keru, are given to children in families in which the first children are shortlived. But their real names are different. The names of the wellknown arithmetician Keru Nána Chhatre and his son Kondopant Chhatre are examples of opprobrious names. [633] Among high class Hindus, the first son is not generally called by his real name, but by one of the opprobrious names given above. [634] Children are sometimes weighed with shoes or sandals, and also with cowdung. In some cases, their nostrils are bored, especially the right one. [635] Hindus generally call their children by the names of their deities and ancestors, and they attribute the premature death of their children to their own misbehaviour towards such ancestors, or to their having abused them; they fear that such abuse or misbehaviour has offended the ancestors. To avoid their displeasure and the consequent death of their children, the people give opprobrious names to their next born such as Dagadya, Dhondya, Gundya, Dandya, Kerya, Ukirdya, Kondya, Lobhya, etc. The custom of tattooing one side of the body of females also prevails in the Kolhápur District, especially in cases where the children in a family are shortlived. [636] In the Puránas there are instances of males being transformed into females, and females into males. For example, the female Amba was transformed into a male called Shikhandi and the male Nárad was transformed into a female. Arjuna, the third brother of the Pándavas is said to have changed his sex, and turned into Bruhannada. [637] In the Shivlilamruta, a book pertaining to the god Shiva, in the chapter of Simantini, it has been described how a man was turned into a woman. [638] At Kolhápur, there are no instances known of a change of sex. The goddess Yallamma has a high reputation in this district for making a change in the habits and deportments of men and women, especially among low caste people. It is believed that the curse of this goddess has the power of destroying the virility of males, whereupon they behave like females. Many instances of this type can be seen at the fair of the goddess Yallamma, which is held in Márgashirsha (December); men dressed in women's clothes and vice versa are often seen at this fair. [639]