Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/21

which is described in the Mahābhārata was about to begin, the Kauravas, the opponents of the Pāndavas, sacrificed, to bring them success, a white elephant. The Pāndavas were in despair of being able to find any such uncommon object with which to propitiate the gods, until Arjuna suggested that they should offer up his son Aravān. Aravān agreed to yield his life for the good of the cause, and, when eventually the Pāndavas were victorious, he was deified for the self-abnegation which had thus brought his side success. Since he died in his youth, before he had been married, it is held to please him if men, even though grown up and already wedded, come now and offer to espouse him, and men who are afflicted with serious diseases take a vow to marry him at his annual festival in the hope of thereby being cured. The festival occurs in May, and for eighteen nights the Mahābhārata is recited by a Palli, large numbers of people, especially of that caste, assembling to hear it read. On the eighteenth night, a wooden image of Kūttāndar is taken to a tope (grove), and seated there. This is the signal for the sacrifice of an enormous number of fowls. Every one who comes brings one or two, and the number killed runs literally into thousands. Such sacrifices are most uncommon in South Arcot, though frequent enough in other parts of the Presidency — the Ceded Districts for example — and this instance is note-worthy. While this is going on, all the men who have taken vows to be married to the deity appear before his image dressed like women, make obeisance, offer to the priest (who is a Palli by caste) a few annas, and give into his hands the tālis (marriage badges) which they have brought with them. These the priest, as representing the God, ties round their necks. The God is brought back to his shrine that night, and when in front of the