80 
E. T. Atkinson— Notes on the history 
[No. I, 
aspersing the assemblage with a brush formed from (Zw&-grass and dipped 
in the water of the argha. The frontal mark is then given with red san- 
dars and a flower is presented with a verse committing the donee to the 
protection of the great god. 
ShashtM-mahotsava. —The shashthi-mahotsava or great rejoicing in 
honour of Shashthi is held on the sixth day after the child’s birth. If the 
father cannot afford to engage the services of a priest he can perform the 
ceremony himself, but usually he sends for his purohita and commits its 
duties to him. The father rises early and bathes, performing the nitya- 
karma as usual. He fasts all day and towards evening makes a ball of 
clay and smears it with cow-dung. He then takes a plank of wood and 
having cleaned it with rice-flour draws on it images of Skanda, Pradyn- 
mna and Shashthi. He then surrounds each figure with a hedge of cow- 
dung about a finger-breadth high and sticks upright in this hedge grains 
of barley. The image of Shashthi is then smeared with cow-dung in 
which cowries or coins are placed, and next follows the Divara-mdtri- 
pujd. The father of the boy collects the materials for worship near the 
door of the house, and there drawing the figures of the mothers with rice, 
consecrates an argha and dedicates the rite to the day’s ceremony. The 
goddesses are then installed :—‘ Om hhur hhuvah svah Dwdra-mdtarah be 
established here and grant our reasonable desires.’ Then a short medi- 
fation takes place, followed by an ‘ Om, hail ’ to Kuma, Dhanada, 
Handa, Vipula, Mangala, Achala and Padma, and the usual invitation, 
&c., as far as the dedication. Hext comes the Ganesa-pujd with rinsing 
of the mouth and a dedication, then the Mdtri-puja wj.th similar detail? 
the punydha-vdchana and kalasa-sthdpana with an invitation to the nine 
planets to be present. The worship of Skanda and Pradyumna then pro¬ 
ceeds with the usual installation address (pratishthd), meditation, invi¬ 
tation, &c., and prayer (prarthana) during the offering of flowers. This 
is followed by the ShatJcrittiJcd-pujd or worship of the six nymphs, the 
foster-mothers of Skanda when amongst the Krittikds, with an enumeration 
of his names and an invocation to Shva, Sambhuti, Sannati, Priti, Anusuya 
and Kshama. Next comes the worship of Shashthi with the usual con¬ 
secration of the argha, prdndydma, dedication and installation. 
The in honour of Shashthi is as follows :—“ Om hhur hhuvah 
8vah {vydhriti-mantra), 0 Shashthi-devi, come here to this magical place 
which is smeared with cow-dung, remain here, consent to be honoured 
here. Then follows the unintelligible mystical formula ’sCf 
^ ^ followed by “ May Shashthi-Devi in spirit and es¬ 
sence be here and may the regents of all the senses be present.” The 
mental assignment of the different parts of the body to its own peculiar 
tutelary deity (nydsa) follows and should be made with the following for- 
