Note 224 — K (continued 6)

The practice of the couvade, or custom in accordance with which the father takes to bed, and is doctored when a baby is born, is referred to by Alberuni224 (about A.D. 1030), who says that, when a child is born, people show particular attention to the man, not to the woman. There is a Tamil proverb that, if a Korati is brought to bed, her husband takes the prescribed stimulant. Writing about the Yerukalas,225 the Rev. J. Cain tells us that “directly the woman feels the birth pains, she informs her husband, who immediately takes some of her clothes, puts them on, places on his forehead the mark which the women usually place on theirs, retires into a dark room where there is only a very dim lamp, and lies down on the bed, covering himself up with a long cloth. When the child is born, it is washed, and placed on the cot beside the father. Asafœtida, jaggery, and other articles are then given, not to the mother, but to the father. He is not allowed to leave his bed, but has everything needful brought to him.” Among the Kuravars, or basket-makers of Malabar, “as soon as the pains of delivery come upon a pregnant woman, she is taken to an outlying shed, and left alone to live or die as the event may turn out. No help is given her for twenty-eight days. Even medicines are thrown to her from a distance; and the only assistance rendered is to place a jar of warm water close by her just before the child is born. Pollution from birth is held as worse than that from death. At the end of the twenty-eight days, the hut in which she was confined is burnt down. The father, too, is polluted for fourteen days, and, at the end of that time, he is purified, not like other castes by the barber, but by holy water obtained from Brāhmans at temples or elsewhere.” To Mr. G. Krishna Rao, Superintendent of Police in the Shimoga district of Mysore, I am indebted for the following note on the couvade as practiced among the Koramas. “Mr. Rice, in the Mysore Gazetteer, says that among the Koravars it is said that, when a woman is confined, her husband takes medicine for her. At the instance of the British Resident I made enquiries, and learned that the Kukke (basket-making) Koramas, living at Gōpāla village near Shimoga, had this custom among them. The husband learns from his wife the probable time of her confinement, and keeps at home awaiting the delivery. As soon as she is confined, he goes to bed for three days, and takes medicine consisting of chicken and mutton broth spiced with ginger, pepper, onions, garlic, etc. He drinks arrack, and eats as good food as he can afford, while his wife is given boiled rice with a very small quantity of salt, for fear that a larger quantity may induce thirst. There is generally a Korama midwife to help the wife, and the husband does nothing but eat, drink, and sleep. The clothes of the husband, the wife, and the midwife are given to a washerman to be washed on the fourth day, and the persons themselves have a wash. After this purification, the family gives a dinner to the caste people. One of the men examined by me explained that the man’s life was more valuable than that of the woman, and that the husband, being a more important factor in the birth than the wife, deserves to be better looked after.” The following legend is current among the Koramas, to explain the practice of the couvade among them. One day a donkey, belonging to a Korama camp, pitched outside a village, wandered into a Brāhman’s field, and did considerable damage to the crop. The Brāhman was naturally angry, and ordered his coolies to pull down the hut of the owner of the donkey. The Korama, casting himself at the feet of the Brāhman, for want of a better excuse, said that he was not aware of what his animal was doing, as at the time he was taking medicine for his wife, and could not look after it. According to another version of the story, the Brāhman ordered his servants to remove the hut from his land or beat the Korava, so that Koravas have since that time taken to bed and shared the pollution of their wives, to escape being beaten.