Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/52

PANAN on the new-moon day in the month of Karkatakam (July- August). Ancestors who died from some untoward accident are propitiated in the month of Avani (August-September) by offerings of flesh and liquor. The latter ceremonial is termed vellamkuli or water drinking. Small earthen sheds, called gurusalas or kuriyalas and matams, are erected in memory of some ancestors. The following account of the Pānāns of the Cochin State is extracted from a note by Mr. L, K. Ananta Krishna Aiyar.* "The Pānāns give, as the traditional account of their origin, a distorted version of the tradition as to the origin of the Izhuvans, which is found in the Mackenzie Manuscripts. The Pānān version of the story is as follows. One day a washerman of Cheraman Perumāl chanced to wash his dress very clean. On being asked by the Perumāl as to the cause of it, the washerman said that it was due to the suggestion of a handsome carpenter girl, who saw him while washing. The Perumāl, pleased with the girl, desired her to be married to his washerman. The parents of the girl were duly consulted, and they could not refuse the offer, as it came from their sovereign. But his fellow carpenters resented it, for, if the proposal was accepted, and the marriage celebrated, it might not only place the members of her family under a ban, but would also bring dishonour to the castemen. To avert the contemplated union, they resorted to the following device. A pandal (marriage booth) was erected and tastefully decorated. Just at the auspicious hour, when the bridegroom and his party were properly seated on mats in the pandal, the carpenters brought a puppet exactly resembling the bride, and placed it by his side,