6. Boy's full membership in their thar: Kaeta Puja.

This is one of the major samskara s and, in contrast to most of the preceding ones, is done by thar s throughout the macrosocial system, including the Po(n) untouchables. It takes its name from the giving of the Kaeta , a loincloth, and derives from the traditional Hindu Upanayana ceremony, that initiation into the knowledge, responsibilities, and full membership of one's jat or "caste" which entailed the "new birth" of the sacred thread-wearing, twice-born non-Sudra castes whose sacred threads were presented to them in this ceremony.

The Kaeta Puja varies in its timing, its elaboration, and its details among different thar s. But the presentation of the loincloth is always of focal importance. That presentation, like all the focal moments in samskara s, must be made at the astrologically proper sait . Those thar s that wear the sacred thread (Tim and above) have a second climactic sait , the proper moment for the presentation of the thread.^[13]

The Kaeta Puja must be done in an odd-numbered year of age. It is usually performed by non-Brahmans at a relatively early age—five, seven, or nine. The Brahman customarily do the KaetaPuja at the age of nine or eleven, their boys' Busakha having been done at the age of five or seven. Those upper-level thar s whose members have priestly functions, and who wear the sacred thread (i.e., Josi, Tini, and Acariya), usually follow the Brahman pattern of having the Busakha at an early age and the Kaeta Puja several years later. For non-Brahman nonpriestly upper-level thar s the Kaeta Puja usually follows on the fourth day after the Busakha . For Jyapus and other middle-level and lower-level thar s who do the Busakha , it is usually combined with the Busakha in one continuous sequence.

For the Brahmans the Kaeta Puja ceremony is part of a complex set of events called Bura(n) taegu ,^[14] which represent the traditional Brahmanical initiation, the Upanayana , which is followed by a now abbreviated period lasting for three months of further study and ritual activities representing the traditional period of Brahmanical studies, the Brahmacarya .

For Jyapu and other middle-level thar s served by Brahmans the Kaeta Puja (with its immediately preceding introductory Busakha ) is usually the first of the samskara s that employ Brahman purohita s.^{[,][ 15,16]} The thar s that combine the two samskara s begin by the shaving of the boy's head, starting with a gestural cutting by the paju completed by the Nau.

Now among the middle-level thars after the hair shaving, and among upper-level thars at the beginning of the independently held Kaeta Puja , a special purification of the boy takes place. A Nauni, a woman of the barber thar , pares the boy's finger and toe nails, For the higher-level thar s this is done at an astrologically determined sait . The nail paring represents a further degree of purification than the boy has previously had, and thus a further degree of resulting purity. While in the case of phuki pollution, prior to the Busakha children only

need a simple purification and following it upper-status boys must have their hair shaven, now, following Kaeta Puja boys must also have their nails pared in a full participation in adult male major purification. They are now full "persons" in the sense defined by considerations of purity and impurity.

After the nail paring the boy is washed and brought naked to the previously prepared and purified puja area, where the ceremony will proceed under the direction of a purohita . In its course a ceremonial loincloth is presented to the naked boy and tied on him by the senior active male phuki member, the phuki naya :. The paju has, in this phase, only a secondary role; he brings additional loincloths as gifts to the now mature boy. After the kaeta is given, the upper-level non-Brahmanical thar s may then give the boy his sacred thread.^[17] But for all thar s, whether they have rights to wearing the sacred thread or not, it is the kaeta itself—the Kaupina , an important part of traditional Hindu Upanayana rites—which marks the transition of the boy into full membership in his thar .

The Kaeta Puja is also a dekha (Sanskrit diksa ), an initiation (chap. 9). The family purohita , now acting as the boy's guru , reveals to him one or more of the mantra s that the phuki gives to its boys in the course of various initiations (chap. 9). Among the upper thar s this is done at the time of the presentation of the sacred thread, and is the first of a series of dekha s that the upper-status boy and young man will be given—the later ones being related to the Tantric worship of the lineage gods and to the special knowledge that may be acquired in preparation for death. At the time of the Kaeta Puja the boy is also instructed about morning and evening worship and about ritual cleanliness, and—in the upper—level thar s—may be told about elementary meditation techniques using the mantra s he has been given.

After the Kaeta Puja the boy is theoretically a responsible and full member of his thar . He can now perform all the rituals, most importantly the death ceremonies for his parents, with the exception of those upper-status Tantric rituals that will need further initiation.

The Busakha and Kaeta Puja are devoted to the social and psychological formation and definition of boys.^[18] During childhood there are also two samskara s for girls, the mock-marriage and the menarche ceremony. Then, with the marriage ceremony, both men and women will again undergo the same samskara s.