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254
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1884.
dition without it. An old habit is difficult to give ap. They would cling to the langôi, and RÂmânuja would allow the demand to his new adherents, and make it & role that every Vaishnava from that day forward snould wear the langóti in addition to his Brahmanik dress, and thus the langoți remains a mark distinguishing the Vaishnavas from other Brahmaņg.
In times of joy and sorrow, at festivals and on sacred days, Brahmans eat in companies. The Vadakalai Ayyangárs of modern days have of late introduced among themselves the custom of eating in company, a pleasure long denied to them by their forefathers, and not enjoyed even to this day by the Tenkalai Vaishnavas. Indeed, in some families of the latter, the son and father do not sit in company at meals, a practice most repulsive to nature. The incongruity does not stop here. Suppose an old Tenkalai Vaishậava Brahman who knows all the four Vedas and does not know & single prabandha or verse of the Tiruvaymoli; he is no Brahman in the eyes of his caste people; but the son of that old man, though he should not know a single syllable of Sanskrit, if only he has got by heart, even without knowing the mexning, line or two of the Tiruvdymoli is & Brâhman of the first water. The father and son do not eat together, the latter, deeming his Brahmaņism would suffer, sits to take his meals separated by # screen from his father. How arose this practice among the early Srivaishnavas ? Râmånuja would preach to his adherents about the necessity of Panktibhôjanam, or eating in rows. They would agree, and when they sat down must have found it unpleasant to sit in company with those whom it was formerly revolting for them to see in the same row before they became Brahman. They could not give up their scruples so easily as their religion. When a man of socially high position sat down in the same row with another of low position the mind of the former revolt-" ed; he would prefer to renounce the new religion rather than undergo this degradation. Råmånaja would perceive this, and arrange that when parties wished to dine together, but did not care to sit side by side as orthodox Brahmans, they might use the separation of a screen.
To those that have not observed the Vaish- nava namaskara, a word is necessary about it
here. When two Vaishnavas meet, each falls down simultaneously towards the other. The common Brâhman Smritis say that the younger should always prostrate himself to the elder. When Râmânaja received other castes as Bra hmans he would preach to his followers the observance of the namaskára, and that the younger should prostrate himself to the elder. But suppose a man of thirty, of rather high position in society had become a Vaishnava; and another of fifty from a lower position had also become a Vaishnava. When the rule that the younger should prostrate himself to the elder was tanght, a difficulty would here arise. A man of socially higher position would object to prostrate himself to one of lower standing, though older than himself. The old and lower caste man would expect that the younger should respect him according to the principles of the new religion. Råmânuja solved the difficulty by uttering
वैष्णवं वैष्णवं दृष्ट्वा मध्ये तिष्ठति माधवः ।। that when two Vaishnavas meet the god Vishnu himself comes and stands between them. So in the one prostrating himself to the other he does not respect the man before whom he falls, but worships as it were the deity between.
In the extreme south of Tinnevelly district is the small town of N & iganeri, wholly inhabited by Tenkalai Vaishpavas. Instead of gôtres, some of them classify themselves by a Tamil word Tirumeni, signifying the beautiful body, AB equivalent to the Sanskrit.gotra. Some of the Tiruma nis they give are clearly enough significant of the original caste from which their forefathers were converted to Vaishnavism. One is Eri irangum tirwmáni, which means the ascending and descending beautiful body, indicative that the progenitor of the family was & climber of trees, i.e., & Saņán. Another is Vellaivelukkum tirumeni, which shows that their progenitor was of the washerman sect. Then we have Tatfukkottum tirumeni, cymbal sounding, t.e., descended from musieians; and Eagumkanda tirumeni, the barber. Thus a number of Tiruménis have meanings which indicate the original caste of these Vaishnava Brahmans.
Among Brahmane, widows shave the hair from their heads. Bat Vaishnava widows, and now the Terkalai Vaishnava widows only, have
