Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/84

 76 mouth. The Putravan ceremony was performed by the father of the child on the first day, or reserved to the fifth day, when the Sashti-pujan ceremony was due. The chief event of the Putravan ceremony was the preparation of the birth-paper or horoscope, which was done by the caste astrologers. The family priest was also in attendance on the occasion. Friends, male and female, were invited and presented with sugar and cocoa-nuts. The Sashtipujan ceremony includes the worship of Jiwatee. Shasti or Sati was a goddess akin to the Roman Parcae, or Fates, who the Hindoos believed wrote the fortune of the new-born baby on its forehead on the fifth night after birth. Jiwatee was the protecting goddess, and acted as a counteracting agent to the mischievous propensities of Shasti, or Sati. On the twelfth day, the father's sister proceeded to the house of the new-born babe to exercise her right of naming the child. This Dr. Kirtikar mentioned as another illustration of the authority the Hindoo woman exercises in her household. The horoscope name was determined from the hour of the birth, the moment of birth rather, and from the grahas, or stars, by the astrologer, but the pet name was always given by the aunt. If this right was infringed, the aunt had a just right to complain. It was she who put the child into the cradle for the first time, for up to that time the child lay by the mother's side. This also was a ladies' ceremony strictly. About the twenty-first day the mother worshipped a pail of water, which was equivalent to worshipping the well, implying that from that time she was free to attend to the linen of the child herself, washing it herself if necessary.

Mr. Sitaram Vashnu Sukhthanker rose to mention a few matters which he thought had either escaped Surgeon Kirtikar, or had been purposely omitted by him as being of small importance. In the first place, he called attention to certain matters connected with the treatment of the infant on its birth; and, secondly, to the reading of the Shanti Path and the Ram Raksha, every evening during the ten days of confinement. A small quantity of ash being pulverised, a finger mark of the same is applied to the head of the mother and to that of the child, and the rest being tied in a piece of rag, is placed near the head and under the bed of the lady. This reading of the Path consists in repeating the name of God, and is intended as a prayer for