CEREMONY USED WHEN WEANING 157
food for the first time. For this occasion they choose a month, a week, a day, and a star which all combine to give favourable auguries. A pandal is erected, which is ornamented all round with toranams \ or wreaths of mango leaves, some of which are also hung over the entrance
door of the house, the inside of which has been carefully purified by the women. The father of the child sallies
forth, provided with a cup full of akshatas, to invite his relations and friends to the feast. All the guests, having purified themselves by bathing, assemble under the pandal.
The mother, holding the child in her arms, and accompanied by her husband, seats herself beside him on the little platform of earth which has been set up in the centre.
The purohita advances towards them, performs the sam-
Icalpa, offers, firstly, homam in honour of the nine planets, then a sacrifice to fire, to which he presents clarified butter and betel for neiveddya. When he has finished, the women sing verses expressing their good wishes for the future
happiness of the child, and perform aratti 2 over him. The father offers puja to his household gods, and a
portion of the dishes prepared for the general feast is set apart as neiveddya for them.
Then the married women form a procession and sing, while they bring in a new dish of silver-plated copper,
which is given by the maternal uncle of the child, and one of those cords made of cotton thread which all Hindus wear round their loins, and to which the little piece of calico is fastened which covers their private parts. They touch the child with these two articles, and then pour some paramanna, a mixture composed of rice, sugar, and other ingredients, into the vessel. Recommencing their song, they proceed in the same solemn order towards the household gods and place before them the dish, which is then known as the dish god. They make a profound obeisance all together to this new deity; then addressing it and the rest of the deities, they implore them to make the child grow, to give him strength, health, long life, and plenty of
1
These torananu are always used at times of rejoicing. They are an outward sign of rejoicing, and an announcement that a feast is going on, inviting people to come. Dubois.
--See last chapter.