Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/334

KOIL TAMPURAN noteworthy fact is that the first-born male always goes by the name of Rāja Rāa Varma. The Upanāyana, or investiture with the sacred thread, takes place in the sixteenth year of age. On the morning of the Upanāyana, Chaula or the tonsure ceremony is performed. It is formally done by the Nambūtiri priest in the capacity of Guru, just as the father does to his son among Brāhmans, and afterwards left to be completed by the Mārān. The priest invests the boy with the thread, and, with the sacrificial fire as lord and witness, initiates him in the Gāyatri prayer. The Koil Tampurāns are to repeat this prayer morning, noon and evening, like the Brāhmans, but are to do so only ten times on each occasion. On the fourth day, the boy listens to a few Vēdic hymns recited by the priest. There is not the prolonged course of severe discipline of the Brāhmanical Brāhmachāri, which the Nambūtiris so religiously observe. The Samāvartana, or pupilage stage, is performed on the fifteenth day. The ceremony of proceeding to Benares is then gone through. Just as in the case of the Brāhmans, a would-be father-in-law intercedes, and requests the Snātaka (past Brahmachāri) to bless his daughter, and settle in life as a Grihastha. The Nambūtiri priest then steps in to remind the boy of his dharma (duty) as a Kshatriya, and gives him a sword symbolic of his pre-ordained function in society. The marriage of a Koil Tampurān does not present many peculiar features. One item in the programme, called Dikshavirippu, may be referred to. During all the four days of the marriage, the bride is confined to a special room, where a white cloth with a carpet over it is spread on the floor, and a lamp burns day and night. The ceremonial bridegroom is either an Aryappattar or a Nambūtiri, now generally a Nambūtiri. Of course,