Note 25 — D
Reading edition
“In former times, dancing-girls used to sleep three nights at the commencement of their career in the inner shrine of the Koppēsvara temple at Palivela in the Godāvari district, so as to be embraced by the god. But one of them, it is said, disappeared one night, and the practice has ceased. The funeral pyre of every girl of the dancing girl (Sāni) caste dying in the village should be lit with fire brought from the temple. The same practice is found in the Srīrangam temple near Trichinopoly.”25