Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/203

accompanied by some Udayas, and a Toreya carrying a bag of rice. At the entrance to the house she is blindfolded, and her mother-in-law pours water over her feet, and waves coloured water (ārathi) in front of her. She then enters the house, right foot foremost, and sits on a mat. Three married women, nearly related to the bridegroom, proceed, with the Kota musicians, to a stream, carrying three pots decorated with leaves of Leucas aspera. The priest does pūja, and the pots are filled with water, and brought back in procession to the marriage dais. The water is poured into three vessels placed thereon three times by each of the three women. Within the marriage enclosure, two raised platforms are set up by a Toreya. The bridegroom, after going round the enclosure three times with his brothers and sisters, enters it, and bathes with the water contained in the vessels. He then dresses himself in new clothes, and is carried to the outer room by his maternal uncle. The bride is then treated in like manner, but is taken to the inner room. At a fixed auspicious hour, the bridal couple repair to the enclosure, where the bridegroom stands on a mat. A screen is held up by four or five men between him and the bride, who stands facing him, while the priest ties the ends of their clothes together. They then link their little fingers together, the screen is removed, and they seat themselves on the mat. The bridegroom's sister brings a tray with a mass of rice scooped out into a cavity to hold ghī for feeding a lighted wick (annadha ārathi) on it, and, placing it before the bridal pair, sits down. The tāli, consisting of a golden disc, is worshipped by the priest, and given to the bridegroom, who ties it on to the bride's neck. In some places it is tied by four or five elders, belonging to different villages, who are not widowers. The contracting