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188
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JULY, 1894.
Then she replied:-"Four Bairagis have gone to Malabar in the South, and before they return the marriage cannot be performed."
"You accept the advice of boys begging in four honses, but not that of your own caste," said they. "The advice of the beggars cannot be accepted."
So the people of the caste married him by force. In the year after the marriage the Bairagis, who bad gone to Malabar, returned, and they reached her house, Sankaru's daughter-inlaw, the wife of Siddamarda, was washing rice. They came up to her and stood in the yard, and said to her :
"You were not here last year, but you are here now. What family do you belong to? Whose wife are you?"
"I am Sankara Baidyati's daughter-in-law and the wife of Siddamarda Baidya," said she.
They became angry, and just then the sun set. They descended the steps of the yard, and went to Mangar (Bober) Ferry at Ullal.
They stood awhile by the ferry. In the meanwhile the wife of Siddamarda, having washed the rice, went inside, and informed her mother-in-law that four beggars had come,
“They inquired who I was, and I answered that I was the daughter-in-law of Sankaru Baidyati and the wife of Siddamarda Baidya. When they heard this, they went away and descended the steps of the yard."
Then Sankara Baidyati came to understand that the mendicants were the Bairagis who had come the year before.
“They advised me not to marry my son when they came last year, but my caste people have him married by force. And now they have come again, and, having heard of this, they have gone away." Thus thought she.
It was evening, and the Bairagis sat awhile at the Bangar ferry, because there was no boat in which to cross the river. Then by their enchantments the waters separated and left them & way for passing over. Thus they crossed the river. Then came Sankaru running and crossed the river, in which the water was as high as a man's neck, and went to the Bairagis, bowed down to their feet and their hands, touched their chins and heads and prayed to them :
“Do not heed the faults which I have committed. Every mistake is mine!"
The Bairagis, who had set their faces to the North, did not turn them to the South, but as they could not bear her persistence, they tore off a japásaras of Vignesvara, and, taking it in the left hand, gave it to her behind their backs. She took it home and put it on her son's neck. As the saram (rosary) had been presented with blessings, his mother gave him the name of Upadêsi-Marda Baidye, and she made the people build a sånam called the Kotêkår's Sânam, and appointed her son to do the púja there and made him perform it.
In the following year she called all the villagers together and said : -
"Four Bairagis were travelling to Malabar in the South, and passed by here. When they first came to me, I was poor, as is known to the whole village. They came to me while I was washing rice. I thought over the matter to myself awhile, and as they had come in the evening, I offered them as much rice as I could give, according to my ability. But they did not take it, and said :-We are not Bairagis who beg in four houses, but we are going to Malabar in the South,' and moreover they said: 'It is better that you give us five kondés of rice out of that which you have been washing. I gave it them, and that day they put up in my house. They rose early in the morning next day and said to me:
“How many sons have you '
.= japmard, 4 rosary necklace.
