THE USE OP AMULETS IN THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 229 



is often accompanied by the performance of horn or ahuti (offering of ghi to fire) and 

 sometimes by sacrifices. 



A Kavac is usually worn on the upper or pure half of the body, on the arm, suspended 

 round the neck, or attached to the hair. It is sometimes put on by the giver and 

 sometimes before the image of the god or goddess whose aid is invoked, and to whom a 

 puja is vowed if the object should be attained. It must sometimes be put on for the first 

 time on a special day, such as a new or full-moon day, or at a particular time, as, for in- 

 stance, after a bath or a change of clothes. Should it be brought by a third person, he must 

 not expectorate or satisfy any call of nature whilst carrying it. Strict purity on the part of the 

 wearer, when an adult, is an essential condition to the efficacy of the amulet, though the 

 restrictions vary in different cases. Some or all of the following rules are usually ob- 

 served : — meat, fish, onions, plantains, anything sweet or sour, intoxicating liquor, and 

 strongly-scented spices are forbidden. The wearer must not take food from anyone out- 

 side his family, or sleep or eat in another's house. He must not touch a low-caste 

 man, a widow, a woman afflicted with mrta-batsa or during menstruation ' or a dead 

 body. 2 He must not come into contact with the smoke of a funeral pyre, or of the fire 

 which is kept burning at the door of a room in which a woman has been confined. He 

 must refrain from sexual intercourse. He must take off the amulet when performing any 

 impure act, 3 and must change his clothes before resuming it. He must sprinkle cowdung 

 and water when any unclean thing is met with, and, should he accidentally come in contact 

 with anything impure, he must touch Ganges water. Some amulets become impure, and 

 lose their efficacy if a death occurs in the family or if anything unclean is touched. Others 

 are believed to disappear mysteriously if the instructions are neglected. The god whose 

 Kavac is worn must be worshipped every day. The amulet itself is sometimes washed 

 daily and the washings drunk, preferably after bathing and before food is taken. Or it is 

 worshipped at stated intervals. The class of amulets known in Bihar as Anant, which 

 are worn just above the right elbow, so as to always catch the eye, are worshipped at the 

 Anant Puja on 14th Bhadra. 



Besides its ordinary general use denoting any kind of amulet worn by Hindus, the 

 term Yantra, which literally means "a machine," is specially applied to a Kavac of a 

 specified metal, shape, size and weight, on which are engraved certain lines or figures. 

 It is worn to avert the influence of particular planets. 



There are several kinds of solid amulets. Tabak or Takti are ornaments, usually of 

 gold, which bear the names or figures of Ram, S'iva, Kali, Ganesa or Krsna. Padak are 

 made to represent the footprints of gods, and are flat medals, roughly square, round or 

 oval, with indentations at the sides to correspond with the toes. These two varieties are 

 worn only by children, round whose necks they are hung. Pithia and Chandrama are 

 made of silver or gold. Upon the former the figure of a man is engraved ; the latter 



1 Women who wear amulets for female diseases are often enjoined to take them off at the times of menstruation and confine- 

 ment. In the latter case the charms are frequently transferred to the child after the ceremony of purification has been performed. 



2 In the Chittagong Hill Tracts, a person may not, whilst wearing an amulet, go under the mdcdn floor of a house in which 

 there has been a birth or a death. If he does so, the efficacy of the amulet is supposed to cease. 



3 Amulets worn for fistula and piles are, however, not removed when answering a call of nature. 



