Dharbam

One of my e-pal sent the following forward about Dharbai.

An article by TRS Iyengar
This article is on one of the practices widely used by Indian Brahmins all over using a Holy Grass named Dharbham or Dharbai. In all functions, auspicious or inauspicious, a performing person needs to wear a ring made of this Dharbham. But many have lost the reason of why it is to be used in the first place. What I learnt from my father is proved to be accurately correct by a Medicine Practitioner.
A Doctor named Sadhashiv Rao, once visited my home. When the topic turned to many subjects, I needed to tell him about the Holy Grass named Dharbham. When I told him about the usage and the values, he could not just believe my words. So, he took out a bunch of the Dharbham from me, went straight to the clinic to take an x-ray of his palm, by covering his hand with the Dharbham. To his utter surprise, he found that the grass absorbed about 60% of the radiation! 

Lots of interesting facts are available about Dharbai with a heading “Believe or Not”. 

Sukracharya, Guru of Rakshashas lost his eye sight by dharbam during Narayana's Vamanaavatharam. 

There is an old story that the snake tongue got cut by a dharbham. 

Rama sent a divyasthram through a dharbham, to scare “Kakasura” when he was in Dhandakaranya along with Seetha. 

I came across the following story how Appayya Dikshithar handled the Dharbam.
For Better Viewing in full screen