20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

646 Nirmala Kulkarnito share his sin. All the three shared the sin with an assurance of boons. Thesin gets manifested in women each month in the form of menstrual flow.The myth expresses peril of it in the primitive man’s mind by associatingmenstrual blood with sin. All available variations of this myth, thoughdiffer here and there, focus on the perilous nature of the menstruation.The puberty ritual rehearses the image of menstruation in Indian mind as amanifestation of sin.2) As it is shown above, the second part of the puberty ritual is tocelebrate the occasion. An over all survey shows that it is seldom mentionedin the ritual texts. The girl is offered auspicious food, ornaments, etc.and she is greeted by visitors. The description of celebration in the ritualtexts is monotones. The way of wording does not change in any texts.The ingredients to be offered to the girl also do not differ from one textto another. Thus, the celebration of the occasion does not seem to be anatural one, but that of an imposed character. The variety of description ofthe appeasing part is not witnessed in the description of celebration partof the ritual. Moreover, all the texts which describe puberty ritual do notdescribe the celebrating part of the ritual; but they describe the śānti partwithout fail. For example, the Gautamagṛhyapariśiṣṭa does not speak of thecelebration, but introduces śānti.3) Puberty rituals either for male or female have been interpreted asthe rituals of initiation. The theory is propagated by Eliade (1958) 12 .Eliade, though admits non-accessibility of information regarding thegirls’ initiation (1957) 13 , he has tried to prove the initiatory character ofpuberty ritual in general on the basis of the analysis of the practices amongsome tribes of Australia and Africa. 14His observations are anchored in the following practices:a. According to the theory proposed by Eliade, symbolic death is oneof the essential marks of the initiation. In case of the sacred threadceremony the symbolic death is verbalized. He proposes that in thepuberty ritual for girls, seclusion in the cave or in the menstrual hutsymbolizes death. This is how even a female puberty ritual couldbe interpreted as an initiation.b. A girl or a boy is introduced to the customs of the society, to thesexuality and to spirituality through the body of myths in thetraining period which forms a part of the initiation.12Eliade, 1958.13Eliade, 1957: 209.14Op.cit., 209-218.