Sunday, 28 October 2012

YAGNEOPAVIT CEREMONY AMONG THE PANDITS

This ceremony is also known as sacred thread ceremony done for the male child of a Pandit family at the age of 13. Pandits are brahmins. In Kerala, similar ceremony is done among hte brahmin community. The function will be for one or two days depending on "mahurat"which means good day for the ceremony. The  hair from head of the male child was shaved off. He wore saffron colour capand held a long stick on the right hand. He, with a large plate went for Bhiksha. At 4 pm on the evening of the first day, maternal relatives visited his house. The day is meant to offer a graceful welcome to all of his relatives. At night, the dinner will be served with the special item"damaloo'. It is made of mashed, spicy,round rapped fried potato. Damaloo was very tasty. For me, it was a little too much  spicy. But it was very tasty. Another tasty item was "Nadru" prepared from lotus stem.Paneerin yellow colour was also very tasty. There was red chilly paneer, which all of the guests loved to eat. All these are support dish for beautifully prepared Pulav, A dish from rice.Pulav were of 2 kinds: salty and sweety.One dish was mixed vegetable curry made out of mush room, green peas, and potatoes. Radish chutney was good. RAjma was a very popular dish served for dinner. Deserts like ice cream, cakes,rasgula, gulab jam attracted both children and elders alike. After dinner, Celebrations of "Mehndi raat" started. Maasi- mother's sister arrived with a decorated vesselwith water and soap to cleanly wash the hands & feetwhen all others loudly sang many songs.An unmarried girl came with another vessel containing rice and salt and with odd number of money and touched his shoulders three times. this is known as 'Shagun' or in Kashmiri community it is called 'Zaang'. Shagun was done on maasi by touching  Isband ( seeds) on her shoulders. Then isband is put  in a decorated vessel called" 'Kangri'. Bbuva (dad's sister) came with mehndi tilak on the forehead of the boy and his feet and hands got decorated.After this important ceremony, singing and dancing event started.Simultaneously, mehndi was distributed to all those women who were there for the ceremony. Gifts were given by women at this time. Singing and dancing continued until morning.

'Devgone' was conducted the next day in the morning. All of the family members of the boy, wearing new dresses, sat behind the 'Agnikund'.All ladies wore 'Athoor'- a  colourful dangle from ear chains and Sreechakra known as 'Takya- Taal' was attached to their clothes. The boy's dress was blessed by the poojari. The blessed dress was worn after the maternal uncle and aunt  bathed the boy.This event was known as Snan ceremony. Now the boy's face was veiled, maternal uncle lifted the boy and made him sit on his lap beside the haven Kund. The boy's veil was removed for darsan of Agni Devta. His hair was totally  shaved off. ladies danced with singing. At midnight, Dressed again on new clothes, aunts and uncles arrived at the Haven Kunt.Another ceremomy began which was known as 'Narivan Kharan.' narivan was the thread tied on the wrist of the boy.Tharpan was an interesting ceremony. All of those present there had to see their faces in the water kept in a vessel. The boy was given a mixture of honey and urine of the cow( gomoothru) for sudhikaran. The boy along with his parents sat beside the Haven Kunt all night while poojari chanted manthras for 'Yagneopavit'. In the next morning, after pooja, the sacred threads- three in number are twisted to make it one by poojari and his father. The thread was worne from the right side. Chanting continued. yagno Pavithram, paramam Pavitram was chanted continuously. Now the boy sought a beed as bhiksha. the first beed was given by maasi,which was the highest amount. Others also gave money. Till evening, he sougght Bhiksha from others. In the evening, samoothik( group) aartis were done. Finally the boy changed his  safron coloured clothes and wore new clothes. he was then decorated like a bride groom.He stepped on Rankoli. Others gave him sweets. the the boy was directly taken to the temple to seek blessings from god. The whole ceremony concluded after the boy and others returned to his house. All were given a huge feast  and after dinner, every body left the place.

This ceremony was an eventful one in the life of a pandit boy.                 

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