Tsaddikutimangalavaram.—This is a piece of self-mortification, and consists in eating on every Tuesday for one year nothing but cold rice boiled the previous day, and feeding a matron with the same.
The following are some of the ceremonies practised by young women after attaining a marriageable age:—
Prabatcha Adivaram.—Offering worship to a married couple, and limiting the taking of food to a single meal on Sunday. This is done with the object of having children.
Apadalēni Adivaram.—Taking but one meal every Sunday, and making a presentation to five matrons of five cakes with a flat basket of rice, body jackets, and other things. This is for the procuring of wealth.
Adivaram (Sunday).—Total abstinence from some one article of food for one year, another article the next year, and so on for five years; also limitation to a single meal every Sunday, and the presentation of cloths to Brāhmans upon the dismissal of the deity invoked for worship. The object of this seems to be to secure re-union with the husband after death.
Chappitti Adivaram.—Abstinence from salt on every Sunday for a year, with a view to secure the longevity of children.
Udayapadmam.—To take for one year a daily bath, and to draw the representation of a lotus with rice-flour every morning near the sacred tulasi plant (Ocimum sanctum), which is kept in many Hindu households, growing on an altar of masonry. The object of this is to restore a dead husband to life again, i.e., to secure re-union in another life.
Krishna Tulasi.—To avert widowhood, those who perform this rite present thirteen pairs of cakes in a gold cup to a Brāhman.
Kartika Chalimidi.—The distribution of chalimidi, which is flour mixed with sugar water, for three years; in the first year one and a half seer of rice, in the second year two and a half seers, and in the third year twenty-six seers, the object sought being to restore life to children that may die, i.e., restoration in another world.
Kailāsa Gauri Dēvi.—To grind one and a half viss (a measure) of turmeric without assistance in perfect silence, and then distribute it among 101 matrons, the object being to avert widowhood.