98 
E. T. Atkinson —Notes 07i the history 
[No. I, 
groom, the former of whom holds her husband’s arm whilst he places 
each offering on the altar and the celebrant recites the prescribed prayers. 
Next come the usual gifts and returns in flowers and rice. Then follows 
the rdslitrabhrit-homa, which also consists of twelve offerings, conjointly 
made, winding up with presents as before. Also the jayd-homa with its 
thirteen offerings, the abhydtdna-lioma with its eighteen offerings, the 
^anchaha-homa with its five offerings and the Idjd-Jioma with its offer¬ 
ings of flowers and fruit. Then the altar is again circumambulated and 
parched rice spinkled from a sieve on the pair as they move slowly 
around. The bridegroom then lifts the bride and places her a short dis¬ 
tance apart, when her brother approaches and gives her some parched 
rice with which she makes a lioma. The bridegroom then asperses his 
bride with water from the Jcalasa whilst repeating the mantra :—“ Om 
d^ah S'ivdh sivatamdh,^^ &c., and also touches her chest and head with 
appropriate mantras. She then goes to the left of her husband and lays 
hold of his garments, and whilst another mantra is read, the bralima-homa 
is made by the bridegroom. The bride then washes her husband’s feet, 
who in return makes her a present, and each applies the tilaha to the 
other and eat curds and molasses together. After washing of hands the 
'purnd’^dtra takes place, in which forgiveness is craved for all defects in 
the ceremony or in the amount of gifts, &c., and the mantra-patra or leaf is 
placed on the bridegroom’s head by the celebrant with the prayer that he 
may be well and have long life, and for this the celebrant is again re¬ 
warded. Then follows aspersion, the giving and receiving of the tilaJca, 
Ac., and the bridegroom is told to look well at his bride. A homily is 
now given regarding their conduct, the one towards the other, that they 
should above every thing keep themselves pure for three nights or mitil 
the cliaturthd-harma had taken place. The party then proceed in doors 
and the Ganesa-pw^a, jivnmdtri and vasoddlidra rites are performed; 
the mahdnirdjana also takes place by the bride’s mother, who presents 
sweetmeats and opening the knot in their garments gives a portion of 
the sweetmeats to both bride and bridegroom, who then retire. 
JDwdra-mdtri-pujd.^Nexd, morning the young married couple arise 
early and after domestic worship again tie their garments together and 
perform the dwdra-mdtri-pujd at the bride’s father’s home. The door-leaf 
is cleaned with rice flour and on it figures of the Matris are drawn and 
reverenced conjointly, the bride assisting by holding her husband’s arm. 
Again she alone prepares the threshhold and performs the dehaliya-puja, 
by sprinkling rice and flowers. After breakfast both proceed to the 
bridegroom’s house, where in the presence of a child who bears on his 
head a small lota of water with a green branch on it, indicative of pros¬ 
perity, he formally commits his wife and her dowry to the safe keeping 
