Rishi-panchami,[570] Gauri-pujan, Shitalāi-pujan, Shili-sātem are holidays observed only by women. On the Rishi-panchami day only niar[571] rice is allowed to those who observe the vrat.[572]
Besides the observance of vrats, there are other ceremonies, auspicious as well as inauspicious, in which women alone can take part. Only women are concerned with all those ceremonies which are gone through on the birth of a child. On the twelfth day after birth, a name is given to the child by its aunt. The ceremony of making an auspicious mark on the throne of a king is performed by an unwidowed woman or an unmarried girl.[573]
At the time of a marriage, women make the auspicious mark on the forehead of the bridegroom and carry a lāman-divo[574] to fetch ukardi.[574] For nine days preceding the date of marriage the bride and the bridegroom are besmeared with pithi or yellow turmeric powder, when auspicious songs are recited by a party of women invited to witness the ceremony. When the bridegroom reaches the entrance of the marriage bower, he is welcomed there by his mother-in-law, who carries him on her hip to his seat in the marriage booth.[575]
It is necessary to make certain marks on the corpse of a woman, and these marks are made by women only.[576] Similarly, women alone take part in the ceremony of getting a widow’s hair shaved on the ninth day after her husband’s death.[577]
The Shāstras have enjoined the worship of certain higher-grade deities, and have prescribed certain ceremonials for the purpose. But women are not authorised to make use of these ceremonies. The reason is that the Shāstras regard women as inferior to men and do not grant them the privileges given to the latter. They are not allowed to learn the Vedas nor can the Gāyatri-mantra be taught to them. The result is that women are not qualified to perform the ceremonial worship of such higher-grade deities as Vishnu, Shiva, Durgā, Ganpati, and Hanumān;[578] similarly the sacrificial rites of Vishnuyāg, Shaktiyāg, Ashvamedha, Rāja-yajna, and Gāyatri-purashcharan can only be performed by men.[579]
It is the duty of men only to worship the shami tree (prosopis spicegera) on the Dasarā day, and the Hutāshani fire on the day of Holi.[579]
Women are not allowed to worship the god Kārtikey, who is said to shun women, and to have pronounced a curse against all who visit his image.[579]
The fifteenth day of the bright half of Chaitra is the anniversary of the birth of Hanumān, and a vrat called Hanumān-jayanti is observed on this day. This vrat,[580] as well as the Ganesh-chaturthi-vrat[581] are meant only for men.
The ceremonies of Shrāddha[582] and the Baleva[583] ceremonies can be performed by men only. The duty of giving agni-sanskār[575] to corpses, i.e., of performing the necessary rites at a funeral, is also laid on men.
People who practise the art of attaining mastery over spirits and fiends, usually remain naked while they are engaged in the performance of their mysterious rites. There are many branches of this black art: for instance, Māran,[584] Uchchātan,[585] Lamban, Vashīkaran,[586] Mohan,[587] Stambhan,[588] etc., and although the meli vidyā (sacrilegious art) is not held in respect by high-class Hindus, it is popular among the lower classes. There is a belief that knowledge of this art dooms a person to hell; but it secures to those who master it a position of much importance, and therefore finds many followers. The art consists in the knowledge of certain mysterious incantations, which enable a person to influence the spirits and to bring about certain results through their agency. Not only has every person when learning this art, to remain naked, but all those who make prayogas or experiments in it afterwards must observe the same precaution. The night of Kāli-chaudas or the 14th day of the dark half of Ashvin, is considered to be the most favourable time for the sādhan or accomplishment of this secret art of remaining naked.[589] On this day, it is the custom of those who exercise the art, to go stripped to a cemetery in the dead of night, and to cook food in a human skull as an offering to the spirits residing in the neighbourhood. On the same night, some sorcerers, after stripping themselves, are said to ride round the village on some mysterious conveyance.[590]