Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/387

 These rites are supposed to purify the body and spirit from the taint transmitted through the womb of the mother, but all of them are not at the present day performed at the proper time, and in regular order.

The Garbhādhāna, or impregnation ceremony, should, according to the Grihya Sūtras, be performed on the fourth day of the marriage ceremonies. But, as the bride is a young girl, it is omitted, or Vēdic texts are repeated. The Garbhādhāna ceremony is performed, after the girl has attained puberty. At the time of consummation or Ritu Sānthi, the following verse, is repeated:— "Let all pervading Vishnu prepare her womb; let the Creator shape its forms; let Prajāpathi be the impregnator; let the Creator give the embryo."

Pumsavanam and Sīmantam are two ceremonies, which are performed together during the seventh or ninth month of the first pregnancy, though, according to the Grihya Sūtras, the former should be performed in the third month. At the Pumsavanam, or male producing ceremony, the pregnant woman fasts, and her husband squeezes into her right nostril a little juice from the fruit and twig of the ālam tree (Ficus bengalensis), saying "Thou art a male child." The twig selected should be one pointing, east or north; with two fruits looking like testicles. The twig is placed on a grinding-stone, and a girl, who has not attained puberty, is asked to pound it. The pulp is wrapped in a new silk cloth, and squeezed to express the juice. On the conclusion of the Pumsavanam, the Sīmantam, or parting the pregnant woman's hair, is gone through. After oblations in the sacred fire (hōmam), the woman's husband takes a porcupine quill, to which three blades of dharbha grass, and a twig with fruits of the aththi tree (Ficus glomerata) are attached,