Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/236

NAMBUTIRI BRAHMAN calls out the name thrice. Gifts and nāndimukham complete the ceremony. In the fourth month, the child is ceremonially taken out of doors (nishkramana or vīttil purapāttu) by the father, who carries it to a cocoanut, round which he makes three pradakshinams."

The. death ceremonies of the Nambūtiris are commenced shortly before death actually takes place. When death is believed to be unmistakably near, some verses from the Taittirya Upanishad are spoken in the dying man's ears. These are called karna mantras, or ear hymns. A bed of kūsa grass, called darbhāsana, is prepared in the verandah or some convenient place outside the foundations of the house, and the dying man is placed on it. When life is extinct, the body is washed, dressed in a new white cloth, and placed on a bier made of bamboos covered with a new white cloth. The bier is then carried on the shoulders of four of the nearest relatives to the place of cremation within the compound of the illam, and laid on a pile of firewood, which must include some sandalwood. This should be done by brothers or sons if there are such; if not, by more distant relatives or friends. The pyre need not of necessity be prepared by Nambūtiris. Properly speaking, according" to the sacred texts, which govern almost every act of the Nambūtiri's life, relatives and friends, male and female, should accompany the bier to the place of cremation, but, as a rule, women do not join the little procession. The bier is laid on the pyre, and the corpse is uncovered. Rice is scattered over the face by the blood-relations present, and small pieces of gold are thrust into the nine openings of the body, while mantras are recited by the Vādhyāyar or priest. The gold is said to be used on this occasion as part of the offering in the yāgam — the last sacrifice, as the burning of the body