Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 198

THE CHAULA CEREMONY
158
Then taking up again the dish god,
back, still singing, to the child. They first
Two of the
of all fasten the little cord round its loins.
women then make it open its mouth, while a third pours
some of the mixture contained in the dish down its throat.
Instruments of music are playing and the women are
singing during the whole of this ceremony.
It is termi-
nated by the aratti, after which all the Brahmins present
are offered akshatas consecrated by mantrams.
Each one
takes a pinch of the coloured rice, part of which he puts
on the child's head and the rest on his own.
Then they sit down to a feast, and the ceremony is ended
by a distribution of betel and a few presents given by the
master of the house to his guests.
this world's goods.
they carry
it
The Chaula.
Three years after the birth of the child
1
the tonsure, or
chaula, is made for the first time.
The Brahmins who are
invited assemble under the pandal after having performed
their ablutions.
The child is brought in by his father and
mother, who seat him between them on the little earthen
platform.
The married women then proceed to perform
his toilette.
They begin by anointing him from head to
foot with oil, after which they wash him with warm water.
They then colour his forehead and sundry other parts of
his body with powdered sandalwood and akshatas, deck
him with ornaments, and finally put a long necklace of
coral beads round his neck and two bracelets to match on
his wrists.
The purohita then draws near the child thus adorned
and performs the sam-kalpa, and also offers homam to the
nine planets.
He next traces on the floor in front of the
child a square patch with red earth, which they cover with
rice that has the husk on.
The idol Vigneshwara is placed
on one side, and to it they perform puja, offering brin-
2
jals
raw sugar, and betel for neiveddya.
The child is made to sit near the square patch, and the
,
1
2
a
Only the male child. Ed.
Beriiigcla in Portuguese, a purple vegetable
Dubois.
This is wrong.
shaped something
fig.
Brinjala are never offered to an idol.
Ed.
like