Customs

For her first confinement a young wife generally goes to her parents house. When labour begins the girl is taken to a warm room whose windows have been closed with paper. Great anxiety is felt that the birth should happen at a lucky-moment. Should the child be born in an unlucky hour, as when the mul nakshatra or the twenty-fourth constellation is in the ascendant, it is believed that either its father or its mother will not live long. When the woman has been taken to the lyving-in room a midwife is sent for, and if the woman suffers severely the family priest is called to read the verses from the Veda and Purans which drive away evil spirits. Sesamum oil and bent grass or durva are brought and handed to the family priest or any elder of the family, who holds the grass in the oil and repeats verses either one hundred or one thousand times over the oil. Some of the oil is then given to the woman to drink, a cow's skull is hung over her head in the room or laid on the housetop, and the rest of the oil is rubbed on her body. As soon as it is born the child is laid in a winnowing fan, the mother and child are bathed in hot water, fire is kept burning in the room, myrrh-incense is burnt, an iron bar is laid on the threshold of the lying-in room., and an earthen jar filled with cow's urine with a brand of nim leaves floating in it is set at the entrance of the lying-in room.

To prevent evil spirits coming in along with them any person entering the room must take the nim twig and with it sp;inkle his or her feet with the urine. When the father of the child hears of the birth, he goes to the house to perform the jatkarm or birth-ceremony. When he reaches the house he bathes either in hot or cold water from a pot in which a gold ring has been dropped, and washes the clothes he was wearing when the news of the childs birth came to him. The person who performs a birth ceremony is considered as impure as the person who performs a death ceremony. In case the father suffers from some grievous malady such as leprosy, some one of his family performs the rite. Whether the father performs the rite or not he must bathe and wash and must avoid touching any one until he has washed. In the women's hall a square is traced with quartz powder and two low wooden stools are set in the square. The father, wearing a rich silk waistcloth, bows before the house gods and the elders, and sits on the stool to perform the birth ceremony.

Before he begins he pours a ladleful of water on the palm of his right hand and throws it on the ground, saying, "I throw this water to cleanse the child from the impurity of its mother's body". The mother then comes from the lying-in room with the child in her arms and sits on the stool close to her husband. The punyahavachan or holy blessings, matrika-pujan or mothers' worship, and nandishradh or joyful-event spirit-worship, are performed. Then the father, taking a gold ring, passes it through some honey and clarified butter which are laid on a sandal-powdering stone and lets a drop fall into the child's month. He touches the child's shoulders with right hand, and presses the ring in his left hand against both its ear. He repeats verses, smells the child's head three times, and withdraws. The midwife cuts the child's navel cord with a penknife and buries the cord outside of the house. The father takes in his right hand the ring and some cold water, and sprinkles the water on the wife's right breast who after this may begin to suckle the child. A present of money to Brahmans ends the birth-ceremony. A Brahman is engaged from the first to the tenth day to read soothing passages of scripture or shantipaths. After the reading is over he daily gives a pinch of cowdung ashes which are rubbed on the brow both of the child and of the mother.

Either on the fifth or on the sixth evening after a birth a ceremony is performed called the shashthi-pujan or the worship of the goddess- Shashthi that is Mother Sixth. An elderly woman draws six red lines on the wall in the mother's room, and, on the ground near the lines traces a square with lines of quartz, and in the square sets a low wooden stool. Six small heaps of rice are laid on the stool and a betelnut is set on each he in honour of Jiranti, Kuhu, Rika, Shashthi, Sinivali, and Skanda, and worshipped by the women of the house. An iron weapon is kept near the god-betelnuts, and both the deities and the weapon are entreated to take care of the child. Under the mother's pillow are laid a, penknife, a cane, and some leaves of narvel Narvelia-zeylonica.

At each side of thedoor of the mother's room are set two pieces of prickly-pear or nivdung and some live coal resting on rice husks. Cooked rice is served on a plantain leaf, sprinkled with redpowder mustard seed and udid pulse, a dough lamp is placed over it, and the whole is carried to the comer of the street for the evil spirits to eat and be pleased. Although the famiy is held impure for ten days, the first, fifth, sixth, and tenth days after a birth are considered lucky for alms-giving or for feeding Brahmans on dishes prepared without water or fruit. For this reason on the evening of the fifth a feast is given to relations, friends, and bhikshuk or begging Brahmans. The sixth night is considered dangerous to the child. The women of the house keep awake all night in the mother's room, talking and singing or playing, and sometimes a Brahman is engaged to repeat verses or read soothing lessons or shantipaths with the object of driving away evil spirits.

On the tenth the mother is bathed, the wall of the lying-in room are cowdunged, the bathing-place is washed and turmeric, redpowder, flowers, and a lighted lamp are laid near or over it. The lap of the midwife, who is generally of the washerman caste, is filled with rice, betelnut, leaves, and fruit, and she is presented with a robe and a bodice and money. On the twelfth day the ear-boring or karna-vedh ceremony is performed. Tho mother, with the child in her arms, sits on a low wooden stool in a square traced with lines of quartz powder. The goldsmith comes with two gold wires, sits in front of the mother, and pierces with the wires first the lobe of the right ear and then the lobe of the left ear, and withdraws after receiving a present varying from a turbant to 3/8 d.(¼ anna) and the price of the wire.

A girl's ear is bored in five places, in the lobe, twice in the upper cartilage, on the tragus, and the concha of the ear. A girl's nose is bored when she is a year or two old. The hole is generally made in the left nostril; but, if the child is the subject of a vow, the right not the left nostril is bored. If a boy is the subject of a vow his right nostril is bored and a gold ring is put into it. The father, mother, and child then bathe, and the father and mother with the child in her arms sit on two low wooden stools set in a square of lines. After the punyahavachan or holy-blessing, and the nandishradh or joyful-event spirit-worship, rice grains are spread in a silver plate and the name of thie family god or goddess is traced with the gold ring. The family astrologer comes with the child's horoscope, which he draws out at his house, and lays it in front of the silver plate. The horoscope contains four names for the child; three of these he fixes and leaves the fourth for the parents to choose. These three names are traced on the grain with the ring, and, at the same time, are traced the name of the family deity, the month, and the ruling planet. Then the family astrologer lays the ring on the rice and the whole is worshipped with sandal paste and flowers. The father worships the astrologer and setting the plate on his right knee reads out the names loudly so that the persons near may hear them. The astrologer reads out the horoscope and calls a blessing on the child's head, saying, ' May the child live to a good old age.' A feast and a money present to Brahmans ends the naming.

A cradle is hung in the women's hall and kinswoman and friends bring a plate with a bodice, a cocoanut, a turmeric root, and a betel packet. Two low wooden stools are set near the cradle and the mother sits with the child in her arms on one of the stools.An elderly married woman marks the child's and its mother's brows with redpowder, and another woman sitting near the mother takes the child in her arms. A woman of the house and another from among the guests lay in the mothers lap a cocoanut, and redpowder, and five married women lay the child in the cradle and sing songs. A lighted lamp is waved round the mother and child, and the women guests retire each with the present of a bodice and a cocoanut. When the child is a month old the mother goes to the house well, worships it, and returns.

During the fourth month if the child is a boy the sun-showing or suryavalokan is performed; in the fifth the earth-setting or bhumya paveshan; and in the sixth, eighth, tenth, or twelfth month the food-tasting or anna prashan. In the case of a girl the sun-showing, the earth-setting, and the food-tasting are all performed at the same time. On some lucky day in a boy's fourth month a quartz square is traced in the house and two low wooden stools are placed in a line. On the right stool the father sits and on the left stool the mother sits with the child in her arms. After the punyahavachan or holy-day blessing, the mother goes out of the house followed by her husband, and holding her child up shows it to the Sun praying him to guard it. They walk to the village temple and presenting the god with a packet of betel and a cocoanut beg him to be kind to the child. On their return if it is on the way they call at the maternal uucle's house, where fruits are laid in the mother's lap and the child and its parents are presented with clothes and ornaments. On returning home the husband and wife wash their hands and feet, and water is waved over the head of the child and thrown away. They take their seats as before. The father fills a silver or gold cup with sugared milk mixed with curds honey and butter, and sets it on a high wooden stool, and in front of the cup lays fifteen pinches of rice and sets a betelnut on each pinch in honour of Bhumi, Chandra, Shiv, Surya, Vishnu, and the ten Dishas or Directions, and they are worshipped.

Then taking the child on his kuee, with its bea;l to the south, a gold ring is passed through the contents of the cup and held up, and what falls from the ring is allowed to drop into the child's mouth. The Brahmans and the priest are given money and retire. A carpet is spread, and some carpenter's tools, pieces of cloth, a pen ink-pot and paper, and jewelry are laid on the carpet and, to find out what the Child is to become, he is laid on his face near them and the first thing he clutches shows to what calling he will take in after-life.