Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 204

164
THE SECOND DAY'S CEREMONIES
The purohita then approaches, holding in his hands an
earthen chafing-dish full of hot embers. He performs the
sam-kalpa, and then formally consecrates the pan of hot
To
coals, which by virtue of his mantram becomes a god.
this he offers the sacrifice called homam, throwing on the
fire some pieces of the aswatta, or sacred fig-tree, some
cooked rice, and some melted butter. After this nine
specially selected Brahmins offer the same sacrifice of the
homam in honour of the nine planets. Then each having
chosen a married woman, they all go off together, still
singing, to convey the sacred fire to some place apart,
where it must be carefully attended to and kept burning
It would be considered
until the last day of the festival.
a very bad omen if, from inattention or any other cause,
this fire were to be extinguished sooner.
The inauguration of the ishta devata (or tutelary deity)
immediately follows. The married women provide them-
selves with a large copper vessel, which must be new and
whitewashed outside. They take it, preceded by instru-
ments of music, to be filled from a well or river. On return-
ing to the house they place some mango leaves over the
mouth of the vessel, and on the top of the leaves a cocoanut,
coloured yellow with powdered saffron. The vessel is then
wrapped in a woman's cloth which has been dyed the
same colour, and is placed on the ground, on the top of
Round its neck are then hung two
a small heap of rice.
palm leaves, rolled up and coloured red, and also a necklace
of small black seeds, and a few other female ornaments.
The purohita then invokes the tutelary deity and invites
him to settle on the vessel, which becomes from that
moment a female divinity, to whom the women promptly
make an offering of flowers, incense, akshatas, a lighted
lamp, and some betel-leaf. The mother of the young man
then places the vessel, i.e. the new goddess, on her head,
and accompanied by the other women, all singing in chorus,
and preceded by the musicians, makes a solemn progress
round the village, under a kind of canopy. On returning
to the house she replaces the vessel, and, with the assist-
ance of some of the other women, drapes round the two
central pillars of the pandal two perfectly new cloths of
the kind worn by women. The same procession then starts