When a novice is initiated all the hair of his head is shaved,
including the scalp-lock. If the Ganges is at hand the Guru throws the
hair into the Ganges, giving a great feast to celebrate the occasion;
otherwise he keeps the hair in his wallet until he and his disciple
reach the Ganges and then throws it into the river and gives the
feast. After this the Jogi lets all his hair grow until he comes to
some great shrine, when he shaves it off clean and gives it as an
offering to the god. The Jogis wear clothes coloured with red ochre
like the Jangams, Sanniasis and all the Sivite orders. The reddish
colour perhaps symbolises blood and may denote that the wearers
still sacrifice flesh and consume it. The Vaishnavite orders usually
wear white clothes, and hence the Jogis call themselves Lal Padris
(red priests), and they call the Vaishnava mendicants Sita Padris,
apparently because Sita is the consort of Rama, the incarnation of
Vishnu. When a Jogi is initiated the Guru gives him a single bead
of rudraksha wood which he wears on a string round his neck. He is
not branded, but afterwards, if he visits the temple of Dwarka in
Gujarat, he is branded with the mark of the conch-shell on the arm;
or if he goes on pilgrimage to the shrine of Badri-Narayan in the
Himalayas he is branded on the chest. Copper bangles are brought
from Badri-Narayan and iron ones from the shrine of Kedarnath. A
necklace of small white stones, like juari-seeds, is obtained from
the temple of Hinglaj in the territories of the Jam of Lasbela in
Beluchistan. During his twelve years' period as a Brahmachari or
acolyte, a Jogi will make either one or three parikramas of the
Nerbudda; that is, he walks from the mouth at Broach to the source
at Amarkantak on one side of the river and back again on the other
side, the journey usually occupying about three years. During each
journey he lets his hair grow and at the end of it makes an offering
of all except the choti or scalp-lock to the river. Even as a full
Jogi he still retains the scalp-lock, and this is not finally shaved
off until he turns into a Sanniasi or forest recluse. Other Jogis,
however, do not merely keep the scalp-lock but let their hair grow,
plaiting it with ropes of black wool over their heads into what is
called the jata, that is an imitation of Siva's matted locks. [205]