Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/487

Rh five cakes with a flat basket of rice, body jackets, and other things. This is for the procuring of wealth.
 * Adivaram (Sunday). — Total abstinence from some one article of food for one year, another article the next year, and so on for five years; also limitation to a single meal every Sunday, and the presentation of cloths to Brāhmans upon the dismissal of the deity invoked for worship. The object of this seems to be to secure re-union with the husband after death.


 * Chappitti Adivaram. — Abstinence from salt on every Sunday for a year, with a view to secure the longevity of children.


 * Udayapadmam. — To take for one year a daily bath, and to draw the representation of a lotus with rice-flour every morning near the sacred tulasi plant (Ocimum sanctum), which is kept in many Hindu house-holds, growing on an altar of masonry. The object of this is to restore a dead husband to life again, i.e., to secure re-union in another life.


 * Krishna Tulasi. — To avert widowhood, those who perform this rite present thirteen pairs of cakes in a gold cup to a Brāhman.


 * Kartika Chalimidi. — The distribution of chalimidi, which is flour mixed with sugar water, for three years; in the first year one and a half seer of rice, in the second year two and a half seers, and in the third year twenty-six seers, the object sought being to restore life to children that may die, i.e., restoration in another world.


 * Kailāsa Gauri Dēvi. — To grind one and a half viss (a measure) of turmeric without assistance in perfect silence, and then distribute it among 101 matrons, the object being to avert widowhood.


 * Dhairya Lakshmi. — As a charm against tears, matrons light a magic light, which must have a cotton