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NAMBUTIRI BRAHMAN
has enjoyed her, and, if he pleases, may have three nights of her company, because the first fruit of her nuptials must be an holy oblation to the god he worships: and some of the nobles are so complaisant as to allow the clergy the same tribute; but the common people cannot have that compliment paid to them, but are forced to supply the priest's place themselves."
Of ceremonies after marriage, and those performed during pregnancy and subsequent to the birth of a child, the following may be noted: —
- (1) Garbhādhānam, performed soon after marriage. There is a hōmam, and the husband puts the juice of some panic grass into his wife's nostrils.
- (2) Garbharakshana secures the unborn child from dangers. It is not considered important, and is not always done.
- (3) Pumsavana, performed in the third month of pregnancy for the purpose of securing male offspring. The desire of the Hindu for male rather than female children need not be dilated on. Putra (a son) is the one who saves from hell (put). It is by every religious text made clear that it is the duty of every man to produce a son. The Nambūtiri may have practically any number of wives in succession, until he begets a son by one of them, and he may adopt a son through the sarvasvadānam form of marriage. On the day devoted to the pumsavana ceremony, the wife fasts until she is fed by her husband with one grain of corn, symbolising the generative organs of the male.
- (4) Sīmantonnayana is the next ceremony performed for the benefit of the unborn child. It is done between the sixth and eighth months of pregnancy, and consists in a burnt sacrifice to the deity, and the husband parting the hair of his wife's head with a porcupine quill, or with
