What is Annaprasana
Annaprasana is the rite of a child's first solid food. The Sanskrit word joins anna, cooked rice, and prashana, feeding: "the eating of cooked rice". It is one of the samskaras, the rites of passage that mark the stages of a Hindu life, and it marks the day a child moves from milk alone to the food of the family.
At Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple, Yadagirigutta, annaprasana is offered before Lord Lakshmi Narasimha. The temple's own seva list notes that it is performed after the nivedana, the offering of food to the Lord, so the child's first rice is food the Lord has received.
What devotees seek
Prayers are offered for the child's good digestion, good speech and good growth of mind. Families also seek to begin this landmark of a child's life in the presence of the Lord. Many perform it at a great temple: in Kerala, where it is called choroonu, families bring their children to temples such as Guruvayur, and Tirumala's devasthanam conducts annaprasana as a temple rite.
Tradition holds the rite when the child is about five to eight months old. In Telugu and Bengali custom, odd months (the fifth or seventh) are held auspicious for girls and even months (the sixth or eighth) for boys. A priest fixes an auspicious day.
What happens
In tradition, the child is bathed and brought to the temple for worship. The first rice, often as kheer, a sweet rice pudding, is given to the child, by the father, the mother or a maternal uncle depending on family custom. The elders then bless the child with grains of paddy and blades of grass.
Many families keep one more custom. Before the child are placed a little soil, a book, a pen and some coins. Tradition says the object the child picks up shows something of the life ahead: property, learning, wisdom or wealth.
How Yadagirigutta performs the rite, beyond its place after the Lord's food offering, could not be confirmed from an official source.
What you receive
When you book through VedaJyoti, you receive a recorded video of the annaprasana.