At Chauk in the Karjat taluka of the Kolába District, some people wave the left shoe thrice round the body of the affected person for the purpose of evading the effects of an evil eye. A red hot iron bar is also cooled in water mixed with turmeric powder.[8]
At Shirgáon in the Máhim taluka of the Thána District water is drawn in a brass or a copper pot in the evening, and turmeric powder, rice, and any other edible articles on which the evil eye has fallen are put into it. Twentyone date leaves, each of them with a knot, are then waved round the body of the affected person and thrown into the water pot, burning coals being dropped into the mixture. The pot is then waved thrice round the body of the affected person, and kept in a corner of the bedroom for one night, with a basket, a broom, and a sandal or an old shoe placed on the top. It is then thrown away in the morning in some public place where three roads meet. If the water becomes red, it is supposed that the evil eye has been removed.[9]
The effects of an evil eye are sometimes visible on the face of a child in the form of small red pustules. The appearance of such pustules is called Chák padane.[10]
If a person is affected by an evil eye at the time of taking his meals, he loses his appetite. He also becomes weaker day by day. One of the modes of removing these evils is to wave fresh date leaves three times round the face of the affected person, and to throw them into water. Some people take water in a copper plate and extinguish in it burning sticks of the tamarind tree, after waving them round the body of the affected person.[11]
At Khárbáv in the Bassein taluka of the Thána District, five pieces of broken tiles are made red hot and put into water in which a little quantity of all the cooked food in the house has been mixed. Turmeric powder is also put into it. A pen knife or some other iron instrument is then turned five times in the water. A winnowing basket and a broom are waved thrice round the face of the affected person, and placed over the water pot.[12]
At Dahánu in the Thána District, two big stones, of which one has been waved round the face of a person affected by an evil eye, are struck one against the other. If the stone breaks, it is believed that the evil effect has been removed. Cowdung is mixed with water in a brass or a copper plate, and dust from a public road, hair, and burning black cotton cloth are put into another small vessel. This vessel is then waved round the person, and placed upside down over the mixture of cowdung. If it sticks to the brass plate, this is supposed to be due to the evil eye.[13]
The people of Kolhápur believe in the effects of an evil eye. A child suffering from an evil eye turns pale and thin, and suffers from headache. To avoid these effects, elderly women make a mark with lamp black on the face or brow of the child. Boiled rice and curds, and bread and oil are also passed round the face of a child, and thrown into a public road.[14]
Generally, in the Konkan districts, opprobrious names are given to children when they are sickly, always crying, and weak, or when they are short lived. These names are Marya, Rodya, Kerya, etc. It is believed that children improve in health when called by such opprobrious names.[15]
Opprobrious names such as Dhondu, Kondu, Keru, are given to children in families in which the first children are shortlived. But their real names are different. The names of the wellknown arithmetician Keru Nána Chhatre and his son Kondopant Chhatre are examples of opprobrious names.[16]
Among high class Hindus, the first son is not generally called by his real name, but by one of the opprobrious names given above.[17]