Chaula Karma

Chaula Karma is a samskaram performed at an early age of a boy. Both Mother and Father of the boy get involved in performing this karma. This article documents the procedure that should be followed during this karma along with the mantras to be chanted by the father.

Before start of the karma, the boy should sit facing east and the mother should sit behind the boy. Father should stand facing north.

Mother should hold a clay bowl with darbhatrinam (3 darbhas), go mayam (cow dung), and rice grains (rice in husk; vadlu in Telugu) placed upon a Ashwatha leaf within the clay bowl.

The digvapana procedure requires warm water. The following mantra should be chanted by the father while mixing cold and hot water.

Warm water should be applied to the boys hair around the head. Father should chant the following mantra while the warm water is applied.

The following mantra describes the dig vapana sutra.

Dig vapana karma must be performed in the pradakshina karamam starting from East.

For each direction, father should take darbhatrinam (3 darbhas) with darbhaagram facing upwards. The darbhaagram along with a few strands of hair should be held and cut.

East

Before cutting the hair on the east side, father should chant the following mantra.

Note: Narayana Sarma at the end of the mantra should be replaced by boy’s name.

The cut darbhaagram and pieces of darbhaagram should be put into the clay bowl in mother’s hand.

The following mantra should be chanted while looking at the knife.

South

The following mantra should be chanted before cutting hair on the south side.

The cut darbhaagram and pieces of darbhaagram should be put into the clay bowl in mother’s hand.

West

The following mantra should be chanted before cutting hair on the west side.

The cut darbhaagram and pieces of darbhaagram should be put into the clay bowl in mother’s hand.

North

The following mantra should be chanted before cutting hair on the north side.

The cut darbhaagram and pieces of darbhaagram should be put into the clay bowl in mother’s hand.

After dig vapanam is complete, the following mantra should be chanted while looking at the clay bowl in mother’s hands.

The knife used for dig vapana should be cleaned and should not be used for next 3 days.

The cut hair along with the darbhaagram should be placed under an Ashwatha tree.

A barbar should perform the kshura karma to the boy after dig vapanam is complete.