Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/445

Rh which a sālagrāma stone has been bathed, is poured into the palms of those who are about to partake of the meal. They drink the water simultaneously, saying " Amartopastaranamasi." They then put a few handfuls of rice into their mouths, repeating some mantras — " Pranāyasvāha, Udanayasvāha, Somanayasvāha," etc. At the end of the meal, all are served with a little water, which they sip, saying " Amartapithānamasi." They then rise together. In connection with the sālagrāma stone, which has been referred to several times, the following interesting account thereof* may be quoted: — " Sālagrāms are fossil cephalopods (ammonites), and are found chiefly in the bed of the Gandak river, a mountain torrent which, rising in the lofty mountains of Nepal, flows into the Ganges at Sālagrāmi, a village from which they take their name, and which is not far from the sacred city of Benares. In appearance they are small black shiny pebbles of various shapes, usually round or oval, with a peculiar natural hole in them. They have certain marks to be described later, and are often flecked and inlaid with gold [or pyrites]. The name sālagrām is of Sanskrit derivation, from sara chakra, the weapon of Vishnu, and grava, a stone; the chakra or chakram being represented on the stone by queer spiral lines, popularly believed to be engraved thereon at the request of Vishnu by the creator Brahma, who, in the form of a worm, bores the holes known as vadanas, and traces the spiral coil that gives the stone its name. There is a curious legend connected with their origin. In ancient times there lived a certain dancing-girl, the most beautiful that had ever been created, so beautiful indeed that