The Tulsi plant is worshipped daily by the Hindus in general, and women in particular, by keeping the plant near their houses. The god Vishnu is worshipped particularly by the leaf of this plant.[#2] The Tulsi plant is considered by the people to represent the goddess Luxmi, the wife of Vishnu. Hindu women will not take their meals before worshipping the Tulsi plant daily in the morning. It is also said that the god Vishnu, in his eighth incarnation called Krishna, had loved Vrunda, the wife of a demon. After her death she was burnt, but on her burning ground there grew the Tulsi plant. As Krishna loved Vrunda very dearly, he began to love this plant also, and hence the image of Bál Krishna, or the god Vishnu, is married to this plant every year on the 12th day of the bright half of Kártik (November). [729] As it is also believed that the god Vishnu resides in the Tulsi plant, the worship of this plant is equivalent to the worship of the god Vishnu. [730] Besides the above mentioned trees, the Palus (Butea frondosa), the Bel, a tree sacred to god Shiva, and the Shami (Prosopis spicigera), a tree sacred to god Ganpati the son of Shiva, are considered to be holy by the Hindus. [731] A common custom among Hindus is for a person who has lost his two wives and wishes to marry a third, to be first married to a Rui plant, and then to the actual bride. His marriage with the Rui plant is considered as a third marriage. After the marriage, the Rui plant is cut down and buried, and thus the marriage with the third bride is considered to be a fourth marriage. The marriage with the Rui plant has been adopted in the belief that the third wife is sure to die unless the spirit of the deceased is made to enter the Rui plant. [732] When a girl is born under the influence of inauspicious planets which may be harmful to her husband, she is first married to a tree or an earthen pot, and then to the bridegroom. The marriage with the earthen pot is called Kumbhaviváha, or the pot-wedding. It is believed that, by observing this practice, the danger to her husband is avoided. The danger passes to the tree to which she is first married. [733] Among the lower classes in the Thána District [734] a poor man unable to marry owing to his poverty is first married to a Rui plant and then to a widow. This marriage with a widow is called pát lávane. This remarriage of a widow among the lower classes is generally performed at night, and under an old mango tree. It is never performed in the house. A widow who has remarried cannot take part in any auspicious ceremony such as a marriage, etc.[#8] At Vankavli in the Ratnágiri District there is a custom among the low class Hindus of a woman who has lost her second husband and wishes to marry for the third time, first marrying a cock, i.e., she takes the cock in her arms at the time of her marriage with the third husband. [735]