following: — " What is the honeyed, highest form of honey which consists in the enjoyment of food; by that honeyed highest form of honey, may I become highest, honeyed, an enjoyer of food." He partakes three times of the mixture, and says: — "I eat thee for the sake of brilliancy, luck, glory, power, and the enjoyment of food." Then the bride's father gives a cocoanut to the bridegroom, saying "Gauhu" (cow). The bridegroom receives it with the words "Oh! cow, destroy my sin, and that of my father-in-law." According to the Grihya Sūtras, a cow should be presented to the bridegroom, to be cooked or preserved. Next a plantain fruit is given to the bridegroom, who, after eating a small portion of it, hands it to the bride. The bride sits on a heap or bundle of paddy (unhusked rice), and the bridegroom says " Oh! Varuna, bless her with wealth. May there be no ill-feeling between herself, her brothers and sisters. Oh! Brihaspathi, bless her that she may not lose her husband. Oh! Indra, bless her to be fertile. Oh! Savitha, bless her that she may be happy in all respects. Oh! girl, be gentle-eyed and friendly to me. Let your look be of such a nature as not to kill your husband. Be kind to me, and to my brothers.*[1] May you shine with lustre, and be of good repute. Live long, and bear living children." The pair are then seated, and the bridegroom, taking a blade of dharbha grass, passes it between the eyebrows of the bride, and throws it behind her, saying " With this dharbha grass I remove the evil influence of any bad mark thou mayst possess, which is likely to cause widowhood." [Certain marks or curls (suli) forebode prosperity, and others misery to a family into which a girl enters
- ↑ * In the Vēdic verse the word used for my brothers literally means your husbands.
