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Adyaritu fertility rite, perhaps originating from aboriginal society, observed by women of some communities in certain parts of
Bangladesh when a girl first starts menstruating. It is believed that this will regulate the girl's menstrual cycle and help create congenial conditions in her womb for child bearing.
In tangail,
on the first day she menstruates, a girl sits behind a door and eats three
morsels of rice from off an aubergine leaf. In rangpur,
on the third day of her first menstruation, a girl draws three lines on
the wall of her house with the dust of a banana plant and then wipes off
one and a half lines. In the chalan
beel area of natore,
menstruating girls draw three lines on the walls of their houses and then
wipe off one of them. This ritual is observed in faridpur
as well as by the Baiga women of India, who use the third finger
of their right hands to draw three lines with their menstrual blood on
the third day of their menstruation. [Momen Chowdhury] |
