Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/295

Rh the thread worn by Brahmins, but the twice-born say that they have no right to it.

Another difficulty for the casual observer is religion. The castes differ with a strange bitterness and bigotry, and will not eat together nor intermarry. Yet they worship the same gods. The Brahmin and the higher Sudra castes are followers of Vishnu or Siva. The lower castes and Pariahs worship demons. The Brahmins profess to have a contempt for demonolatry and the blood sacrifices which accompany its ritual. They worship in large temples, where their offerings consist of fruit, grain, sugar, butter, and camphor, in addition to gold and silver and precious stones. The doctrine of the high caste Hindus is deistic and philosophical. Religious exercise lies more in the performance of domestic ceremonies than in a frequent attendance at the temple.

The Hindu woman, no matter what her caste may be, takes no active part in public worship. She may provide the gifts and carry them to the temple, but a male member of the family must present them. Her office is in the privacy of the house. Before eating the midday meal she rings a bell or strikes a gong to call the rest of her family, and she does pujah to the household god, whose image in brass or copper she keeps upon a shelf. A lamp is lighted and a small offering is made. Prayers are said with clasped hands and many genuflexions. It is a short ceremony, incumbent on every female head of the zenana.

The man performs his ablutions and orisons at stated times. Domestic ceremonies connected with births, deaths, marriages, and the attainment of certain ages are carried out with the assistance of the purohit, the domestic chaplain of the family. At intervals a visit is received from the guru, the superintending domestic chaplain and inquisitor. It is his duty to discover if caste rules have been broken, and if domestic rites have been properly