1884.] 
49 
of Religion in the Himdlaija. 
dasi or fourteentli of the light half, which is further observed as a festival 
at Beninaga in Baraun, Bhagling in Shr and Chhipnla in Askot and also 
at the temples to Grhantakarna in Garhwal. The eleventh is locally known 
as the Pdrsvapari ekddasz and the twelfth as the Baman or Srdvana dwd~ 
dasi from the Sravana naJcshatra or asterism, but both are merely nominal 
festivals. The day of the full moon is observed as in other months. 
S'rdddha-paJcsha of Asoj. —The entire dark half of Asoj is known as the 
S'rdddha-paksha or fortnight devoted to the repose of the manes of ances¬ 
tors. It is also called the Mahdlaya pdrvana srdddha from the formula used 
each day in worshipping the manes. The ninth is known as the S'rdd- 
dhiyd navami when the ceremonies are performed for a mother. On this 
day, the children by a legal wife make small balls of cooked rice and the 
children by a concubine make the same of raw rice ground with water 
on a stone. These cakes or balls are called pinda and are worshipped in 
remembrance of the deceased. They are then given to a cow to eat or 
are thrown into a river or on to some secluded waste piece of ground. 
The practice of making pinda of boiled rice is, however, confined to those 
castes who claim connection with similar castes in the plains and is un¬ 
known amongst the Khasiyas, who make the pinda of raw rice as already 
noticed for the offspring of a concubine. If a father has died his drdddha 
is performed on the same date of the fortnight: thus if he died on the 
third of Magh sudi, his srdddha in the srdddha-paJcsha or Jcanydgati will 
be held on the third, but if he died on the ninth or any succeeding date, 
if the mother be already dead, as a father’s srdddha cannot be held after a 
mother’s, the ceremony must be observed on the eighth. In addition to 
this the anniversary of the death of a father is always separately observed 
by the better classes and is called ‘ eJcoddishta’ or ‘ eJcoddrishta’ when ‘ he 
alone is looked at’ or is made the object of worship. If he died during the 
srdddha-paJcsha, the day is called ‘ eJcoddishta khydta srdddha,'’ and though 
it falls on the ninth or succeeding day is observed as the anniversary. 
The last day of the dark half is called Amdvasyd srdddhiyd, when the names 
of all ancestors are mentioned and worshipped, but pindas are made and 
offered only for the three male paternal ancestors, father, grandfather 
and great-grandfather. The three ascending cognates and agnates are 
all honoured on this day, which is the only one observed by Dorns. The 
srdddha of girls who die before marriage is never made, and of boys only 
if they have been invested with the sacrificial thread. The srdddha of a 
girl who has married is made by her husband’s brother’s family, if she 
dies childless her husband’s brother’s son, or if her husband has married 
twice and has offspring, her step-son (sautela) performs the ceremony. 
In default of these, the elder or other brother of the husband will 
ofiiciate ; her own brothers never can take part in any ceremony connected 
G 
