Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/242

PISHARATI ceremony. The maternal uncle first names the child. When it is four or six months old, it is taken out to see the sun. On the occasion of the annaprasana, which usually takes place in the sixth month, the maternal uncle gives the first mouthful of cooked rice to the child by means of a golden ring. The Yatrakali serves as the night's entertainment for the assembled guests. Nambūtiris are invited to perform the purificatory ceremony known as punyāha, but the consecrated water is only sprinkled over the roof of the house. The inmates there of protrude their heads beneath the eaves so as to get purified, as the Brāhmans do not pour the water over them. The chaula or tonsure takes place at the third year of a child's life. The maternal uncle first touches the boy's head with a razor, and afterwards the Mārān and barber do the same. The initiation into the ashtākshara takes place at the age of sixteen. On an auspicious day, a Brāhman brings a pot of water, consecrated in a temple, to the pishāram, and pours its contents on the head of the lad who is to be initiated. The ceremony is called kalasam-ozhuk-kua, or letting a pot of water flow. After the teaching of the ashtākshara, the youth, dressed in religious garb, makes a ceremonial pretence of proceeding on a pilgrimage to Benares, as a Brāhman does at the termination of the Brāhmacharya stage of life. It is only after this that a Pishārati is allowed to chew betel leaf, and perform other acts, which constitute the privileges of a Grihastha. The funeral rites of the Pishāratis are very peculiar. The corpse is seated on the ground, and a nephew recites the ashtākshara, and prostrates himself before it. The body is bathed, and dressed. A grave, nine feet deep and three feet square, is dug in a corner of the grounds, and salt and ashes, representing all the Panchabhūtas,