An offering that corresponds to one’s own weight, e.g. fruits, coconuts, grain or gold, silver.
Newborns are outweighed with bananas because the fruit in the peel is considered to be as untouched and pure as a newborn.
The custom takes place mainly in southern India.
Mythologically it is traced back to King Shibi, who gave as much of his flesh as a bird weighs to save such a bird from a bird of prey.