A caul is named kwadri (umbrella), but no importance is attached to it, nor is it kept.
Seclusion after Childbirth
Two or three days after childbirth the mother and child go to the seclusion-hut, or puzhars, the same structure being used as after the hand-burning ceremony. Various rites are performed, both when going to and leaving the seclusion-hut, and these have many points in common with those which take place before and after the hand-burning. As in that case, the procedure for the Tartharol differs considerably from that of the Teivaliol.
The general name for the ceremony of going to the puzhars is pòlk pòtha nir utpimi—“to the calf back (or hind quarters) water we pour,” from one of the chief features of the proceedings. The ceremony takes place either in the early morning or in the evening.
FIG. 46.—TERSVELI SITTING AT THE DOOR OF THE ‘PUZHARS’ AT KARIA WITH HER FACE TURNED FROM THE SUN.
The woman who is to be secluded, whether she be Tarthar or Teivali, rubs ashes on her head and face (pûthi adipimi, ashes we rub), and comes out of the ordinary hut in which she has been living since the delivery. She holds over her head a branch of the ‘Nilgiri holly,’[14] which has spreading leaves so that it resembles an umbrella; this leafy umbrella is called tòrikwadr, and the act is called tòrikwadr patipimi, “we hold the umbrella.” The head is also covered with the putkuli. From the moment she leaves the hut the woman is very careful to keep her face turned away from the sun, not on account of its noxious influence, but in order to avoid the star or other body called Keirt, which is supposed to be near the sun. The child is carried in front of the mother by another woman, who also holds a tòrikwadr to shelter the infant from the evil influence of Keirt. Among the Tartharol a small artificial dairy is made, exactly as in the urvatpimi ceremony, and four reeds are cut to represent dairy vessels. [[325]]As the woman walks towards the place where the pülpali has been erected, another woman lays on the ground before her a leaf of kakud on which she puts some threads taken from a madtuni—i.e., the garment worn by the wursol. These threads are called tunikar,[15] and they are taken up by the mother and put in the string round her waist on the right side.[16] Water is then poured by the husband from the imitation patatpun over the hind quarters (pòtha) of a calf, so that it falls into the ertatpun just as in the urvatpimi ceremony. Before the woman drinks this water, three drops of it are put into the mouth of the child and a four-anna piece (panm) into its hand. The mother then drinks three times [[326]]and bows down at the threshold of the imitation dairy, after which she goes into the seclusion-hut. During the whole of the proceedings she is careful not to turn her face towards the sun.
Among the Teivaliol there is no imitation dairy and, as in the urvatpimi ceremony, only two reeds are used as ertatpun. A fire is made on an improvised fireplace of three stones, and lighted by means of thatch brought from the hut,[17] and food is put on a fragment of an earthenware vessel and placed over the fire.
After the woman has drunk of the water which has been poured over the back of the calf, she breaks the earthenware fragment over the fire, saying, Namavku, “to Namav,” this rite being called Namavtur kwudrtpimi, “to Namav we give.” The woman then goes to the seclusion-hut, being assisted by her husband, who now acquires the impurity which is called ichchil, and any one else who touches the woman after this ceremony also becomes ichchil.