4. The rice feeding ceremony: Ja(n)ko.
This ceremony takes place for girls when they are either five or seven months of age and for boys when they are six or eight months. The earlier time is the usually preferred date; the later one is used if there is some polluting condition in the family, or if the earlier date is considered astrologically inauspicious. This is (in the nomenclature used by the upper-level thar s) a maca ("child") ja(n)ko ; the term "ja(n)ko " is also used for certain old-age ceremonies. There is an alternate term used by many upper-status people (although seldom by Brahmans), and used as the ordinary term among Jyapus and lower thar s, Ja cipa(n) thiyekegu , "feeding [the infant] with boiled rice."[5] The elements of this ceremony common to the various thar s are the "rice feeding" itself and the taking of the child out of the household to the neighboring Ganesa[*] shrine. Upper-level thar s add further elements.
In the first focus[6] of the ritual, at the proper astrological time, the sait , the infant is fed boiled rice and other food (such as bread, fruit, curds, milk) by the phuki leader, the phuki naya :. In a common interpretation the mother's milk is not sufficient to feed the infant any more and it must be "taught" to eat other foods. The infant's diet had been mother's milk, typically supplemented by honey, rice flour, milk from other sources, and clarified butter. Now boiled rice and other mashed-up foods are added. It is said that with this shift in its diet the infant can now be taken care of by people other than its mother.
After the rice feeding and before the next major phase of the sequence other elements may be added to the ceremony. In upper-status families at this point the beak of a live and carefully held gander may be introduced into the infant's mouth so that it touches the tongue "in order to give the infant strength in
digesting its food as Agni (the fire deity) was able to digest the sacrifice." In a practice followed in many thar s (many more than do the gander ceremony) the child is now surrounded by various objects that represent interests and professions that would be appropriate given its gender and status, as well as by objects that would be inappropriate. These might included a book, a pen, soil, rice, ornaments, and items representing some particular trade. The child is now watched to see which objects seem to interest it. It is said that if it is interested in the wrong kinds of things it must be watched and guarded against the development of that interest.
In the next major movement of the samskara , done by all the thar s who do it at all, in another movement of separation from the mother the child is taken by its paju , one of its mother's brothers, and carried out of the house in a procession preceded by musicians and followed by men of the infant's father's phuki .[7] Women will not join the procession, although young girls may join it. The paju carries the infant to the local Ganesa[*] shrine or temple—introducing the child, it is said, to the neighborhood—and then to other temples that are important to the family. Each temple is circumambulated and offerings are given in behalf of the infant (symbolized by being first held to the infant's head in mimicry of a respect gesture) to the temple or shrine deity. The procession then returns to the house where the paju returns the infant to its mother.
While in the previous samskara s the household and the patrilineal phuki members—the groups who had shared in the pollution of the infant's birth—were the ritual actors, in this samskara a new kind of participant is introduced, the mother's brother, the paju , representing the matriline. The paju will be of central importance in many of the subsequent samskara s. The paju now gives a symbolic gift of money to the mother "to compensate her for having taken the [paternal] household's child out of the house." Then as representative of the mother's natal household he gives substantial and valuable presents to the child, the mother, and other household members. (The paju will return again, echoing this first visit, with gifts at the time of a boy's second birthday, and of boys' and girls' fourth birthday.) Members of the phuki and affinally related kin and friends then present swaga(n) (app. 4) and other gifts to the infant.
The ceremony is followed by a major feast, a bhwae (which characteristically is attended by guests from a group wider than phuki ). This is the first of the samskara s in which such feasts are given. If a family is able to do it, in some cases, such as the birth of a first son, this feast may include hundreds of invited guests.
Now the sequence of samskara s separates for a while for boys and for girls. The boys will go on to the Busakha and Kaeta Puja rites; the girls, to the Ihi and Barhataegu rites.