Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/98

KSHATRIYA mix honey and clarified butter with gold, to be given to the child. On the twelfth day, the Nambūtiri priest performs the namakarna, after a purifying ceremony which terminates the birth pollution. The eldest child is generally named Rāja Rāja Varma. Udaya Varma and Martanda Varma are names found among the Rājas, but absent among the Koil Tampurāns. Martanda Varma was once exclusively used only among the members of the Travancore Royal Family. The full style and titles of the present Maharāja of Travancore are His Highness the Maharāja Sir Sri Padmanabha Dasa Vanchi Bala Rāma Varma, Kulasekhara Kiritapati Sultan Manne Maharāja Rāja Rāmarāja Bahadur Samsher Jung, G.C.S.I.,G.C.I.E., Raghava Varma is a name peculiar to the Pantalam Rājas. Women are, as in the case of Tirumalppāds and Tampans, called Amba, Ambika, Ambalika, Mangala, etc. The annaprasana and nishkramana are performed consecutively on the same day. The mother takes the child to the foot of a jak (Artocarpus integrifolia) tree, and, going thrice round it, touches it with the leg of the child, and then dips a golden ring in the payasa, and applies it to the child's lips. The same act is then repeated by the maternal uncle, father, and next of kin. The Yatrakali is attended with much élat during the night. The upanayana, or investiture with the sacred thread, takes place as late as the sixteenth year. As a preliminary rite on the same day, the chaula or tonsure ceremony is performed. It is formally done by the Nambūtiri priest in the capacity of guru or preceptor, and left to be completed by the Mārān. The priest then invests the boy with the thread, and, with the sacrificial fire as lord and witness, initiates him into the Gāyatri prayer. All Kshatriyas are obliged to repeat this prayer