or in public, is also prohibited. This injunction runs counter to that of the Sutrakāras, who say 'Na vivasanah snayat,' i.e., bathe not without clothing. The fastidious sense of bath purity occasionally takes the form of a regular mania, and receives the not inapt description of galappisāchu or possession by a water-devil. Never, except under extreme physical incapacity, does a Nambūtiri fail to bathe at least once a day." Before concluding the bath, the cloth worn when it was begun, and for which another has been substituted, is wrung out in the water. From this practice, a patch of indurated skin between the thumb and first finger of the right hand, where the cloth is held while wringing it, is commonly to be seen. Almost every Nambūtiri examined in North Malabar was marked in this way.
The Nambūtiris observe sixty-four anācharams, or irregular customs, which are said to have been promulgated by the great reformer Sankarāchārya. These are as follows: —
- (1) You must not clean your teeth with sticks.
- (2) You must not bathe with cloths worn on your person.
- (3) You must not rub your body with the cloths worn on your person.
- (4) You must not bathe before sunrise.
- (5) You must not cook your food before you bathe.
- (6) Avoid the water kept aside during the night.
- (7) You must not have one particular object in view while you bathe.
- (8) The remainder of the water taken for one purpose must not be used for another ceremony.
- (9) You must bathe if you touch another, i.e., a Sūdra.
