THE DASARA FEAST 569
instruments with which he gains his livelihood. The prayers which are addressed and the honours which are paid to them are intended to persuade them to continue to be useful to their possessors. In fact, the whole ceremony is based on the Hindu principle, that it is necessary to pay honour to everything which may be either useful or
hurtful.
A month later, at the new moon of October, comes the
feast of Maha-navami, known also under the name of
Dasara, specially dedicated to the memory of ancestors.
This feast is considered to be so obligatory that it has become a proverb that anybody who has not the means of
celebrating it should sell one of his children in order to do so. Each family offers the usual sacrifices to its deceased ancestors, and also presents them with new cloths such as are usually worn by men and women, in order that they may be properly clothed. The feast lasts nine days. This is also the special festival of universities and schools. The students, dressed in gay apparel, parade through the streets
every day, singing verses composed by their professors, who march at their head. They also recite these verses
before the doors of their relatives and the principal inhabitants of the place. At the same time they dance and play in a simple fashion, marking time by striking sticks together. At the end of it all the professors receive small
presents of money from the people before whom their students have performed. A portion of the sum collected is given to the students for a feast on the last day of the ceremonies, and the remainder the professors keep for themselves.
The Dasara is likewise the soldiers ' feast. Princes and
soldiers offer the most solemn sacrifices to the arms which are made use of in battle. Collecting all their weapons
together, they call a Brahmin purohita, who sprinkles them
with tirtham( holy water) and converts them into so many divinities by virtue of his mantrams. He then makes puja to them and retires. Thereupon, amidst the beat of drums,
the blare of trumpets and other instruments, a ram is
brought in with much pomp and sacrificed in honour of the various weapons of destruction. This ceremony is observed with the greatest solemnity throughout the whole Peninsula,