File:Castes and tribes of southern India. Assisted by K. Rangachari (1909) (14770789641).jpg

Identifier: castestribesofso06thuruoft (find matches)
Title: Castes and tribes of southern India. Assisted by K. Rangachari
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Thurston, Edgar, 1855-1935 Rangachari, K
Subjects: Caste -- India Madras (Presidency) Ethnology -- India Madras (Presidency) India -- Social conditions
Publisher: Madras Government Press
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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m. Thelatter adorns himself with all regal pomp, and, mountinga horse, goes in procession to the brides house wherethe marriage ceremony is celebrated. The marriage ceremony is, in ordinary cases, com-pleted in one day, but the tendency is to spread it overthree days, and introduce the standard Puranic form ofritual. On the day preceding the wedding-day, the brideis brought in procession to the house of the bridegroom,and the marriage pots are brought by a woman of thepotter caste. On the wedding morning, the marriagedais is got ready, and the milk-post, pots, and lights areplaced thereon. Bride and bridegroom go separatelythrough the nalagu ceremony. They are seated on aplank, and five women smear them w^ith oil by means ofa culm of grass (Cynodon Dactylon), and afterwards withPhaseolns Mungo (green gram) paste. Water colouredwith turmeric and chunam (arathi) is then waved roundthem, to avert the evil eye, and they are conducted tothe bathing-place. While they are bathing, five small
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PANDAMUTTI (MARRIAGE POTS). 19 PALLI OR VANNIYAN cakes are placed on various parts of the body—knees,shoulders, head, etc. When the bridegroom is about toleave the spot, cooked rice, contained in a sieve, iswaved before him, and thrown away. The bridal coupleare next taken three times round the dais, and they offerpongal (cooked rice) to the village and house gods andthe ancestors, in five pots, in which the rice has beenvery carefully prepared, so as to avoid pollution of anykind, by a woman who has given birth to a first child.They then dress themselves in their wedding finery, andget ready for the tying of the tali. Meanwhile, themilk-post, made of Odina Wodie^^, Erythrina indica, orthe handle of a plough, has been set up. At its side areplaced a grindstone, a large pot, and two lamps calledkuda-vilakku (pot light) and alankara-vilakku (ornamentallight). The former consists of a lighted wick in anearthenware tray placed on a pot, and the latter of awooden stand with several branc

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