Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/157

Rh (lamp) of a Balija Dāsari. She Is released either by the man who is to receive her first favours, or by her maternal uncle. A simple feast is held, and a string of black beads tied round the girl's neck. She becomes a prostitute, and her children do not marry into respectable Bōya families. "Basava women," Dr. E. Balfour writes,* " are sometimes married to a dagger, sometimes to an idol. In making a female child over to the service of the temple, she is taken and dedicated for life to some idol. A khanjar, or dagger, is placed on the ground, and the girl who is to undergo the ceremony puts a garland thereon. Her mother then puts rice on the girl's forehead. The officiating priest then weds the girl to the dagger, just as if he was uniting her to a boy in marriage, by reciting the marriage stanzas, a curtain being held between the girl and the dagger." In an account of the initiation ceremony of the Basavis of the Bellary district Mr. F. Fawcett writes as follows.† " A sword with a lime stuck on its point is placed upright beside the novice, and held in her right hand. It represents the bridegroom, who, in the corresponding ceremony of Hindu marriage, sits on the bride's right. A tray, on which are a kalasyam (vessel of water) and a lamp, is then produced, and moved thrice in front of the girl. She rises, and, carrying the sword in her right hand, places it in the god's sanctuary. Among the dancing-girls very similar ceremonies are performed.With them, the girl's spouse is represented by a drum instead of a sword, and she bows to it. Her insignia consist of a drum and bells." In a further note on the dedication of Basavis, Mr. Fawcett writes ‡ that "a tāli,