Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 409

ADOPTING A SOX
who
is
burdened with many children.
adoptive father
fusal
369
rich, lie is sure
is
So long as the
not to meet with a re-
l
.
The adopted son renounces wholly and for ever all his
claims to the property and succession of his natural father,
and acquires the sole right to the heritage of his father by
The latter is bound to bring him up, to feed
adoption.
him, and to treat him as his own son to have the cere-
;
mony
performed for him,
The adopted son, in his turn, is
to see him married.
obliged to take care of his adoptive father in his old age
and in sickness, just as if he were his natural father, and
On the death of his adoptive
to preside at his obsequies.
father he enters into full possession of his inheritance
Should there be any property
assets as well as liabilities.
but if, on the other hand, there are
left, he enjoys it
He is, moreover, by his
debts, he is bound to pay them.
adoption admitted into the gothram or family stock of the
adopter, and is considered to have left that in which he
of
upanayana, or the
triple cord,
and
;
was born
2
.
only natural that, in a country where everything is
performed with so much solemnity, an event of such
importance should be attended with great ceremonies. The
following are a few of the most important
The first thing to be done, as might be expected, is to
select an auspicious day.
They then adorn the portals of
the house with toranams (garlands of leaves) and put up
a temporary pandal. The festivities open with a sacrifice
to Vigneshwara and the nine planets
and the other pre-
paratory ceremonies already described are likewise gone
through. The adoptive father and mother take their seats
on the small dais raised in the middle of the pandal. The
mother of the child is presented with a new garment and
with a hundred or a hundred and fifty pieces of silver as
her nursing wages. Then, with her son in her arms, she
approaches the adoptive father, who asks her in a loud
It
is
:
;
The strict rule is that the natural mother of the adopted son must be
Nowadays, however,
a marriageable relative of the adoptive father.
a Hindu is allowed to adopt anv bov provided he be of the same caste.
1
—Ed.
2
Gothram
literallv
means
'
cowshed.'
Ed.