Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/260

NAMBUTIRI BRAHMAN alms). The mother places five or seven handfuls of rice in the vessel. After receiving similar contributions from the assembled elders, the boy takes the vessel to his father, who is the first guru, saying 'Bhaikshmāmidam' (This is my alms collection). The father blesses it, and says 'May it be good.' After the Gayatrijapa, the ceremony of Samidadhana is performed. This is the Brahmachāri's daily worship of the sacred fire, corresponding to the aupasana of the Grihastha, and has to be performed twice daily. After another hōmam at night, the cloth covering the sacred thread and skin is removed, and the consecration of the food is done for the first time. In addition to the skin strap, the Brahmachāri wears a mekhala or twisted string of kūsa grass. It is doubtless of the youthful Nambūtiri that Barbosa wrote as follows at the beginning of the sixteenth century. 'And when these are seven years old, they put round their necks a strap two fingers in width of an animal which they call cresnamergan, and they command him not to eat betel for seven years, and all this time he wears that strap round the neck, passing under the arm; and, when he reaches fourteen years of age, they make him a Brāhman, removing from him the leather strap round his neck, and putting on another three-thread, which he wears all his life as a mark of being a Brāhman.' The rules which were observed with such strictness centuries ago are still observed, and every Nambūtiri boy goes through his period of Brahmachārya, which lasts at least for full five years. During the whole of this period, no sandal paste, no scents, and no flowers are to be used by him. He is not to take his meals at other houses on festive occasions. He must not sleep during the day. Nor may he wear a loin-cloth in the ordinary fashion. Shoes and umbrella are also prohibited. The completion of the Brahmachāri