Note 235 — Chapter IX · THE WORSHIP OF TREES (continued 2)

The explanation has been suggested by Mr. W. Crooke (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxviii. (1899) p. 243). There are other facts, however, which point to a different explanation, namely, that the practice is intended to avert possible evil consequences from bride or bridegroom. For example, “the superstition regarding a man’s third marriage, prevalent in Barār and, I believe in other parts of India, is not despised by the Vēlamās. A third marriage is unlucky. Should a man marry a third wife, it matters not whether his former wives be alive or not, evil will befall either him or that wife. No father would give his girl to a man whose third wife she would be. A man therefore, who has twice entered the married state and wishes to mate yet once again, cannot obtain as a third wife any one who has both the wit and the tongue to say no; a tree has neither, so to a tree he is married. I have not been able to discover why the tree, or rather shrub, called in Marāthī ru’i and in Hindūstānī madar (Asclepias gigantea), is invariably the victim selected in Barār, nor do I know whether the shrub is similarly favoured in other parts of India. The ceremony consists in the binding of a mangal sūtra round the selected shrub, by which the bridegroom sits, while turmeric-dyed rice (akṣata) is thrown over both him and the shrub. This is the whole of the simple ceremony. He has gone through his unlucky third marriage, and any lady whom he may favour after this will be his fourth wife” (Captain Wolseley Haig, “Notes on the Vēlamā Caste in Bārār,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, lxx. part iii. (1901) p. 28). Again, the Vellalas of Southern India “observe a curious custom (derived from Brāhmans) with regard to marriage, which is not unknown in other communities. A man marrying a second wife after the death of his first has to marry a plantain tree, and cut it down before tying the tāli, and, in case of a third marriage, a man has to tie a tāli first to the erukkan (arka: Calotropis gigantea) plant. The idea is that second and fourth wives do not prosper, and the tree and the plant are accordingly made to take their places.” (Mr. Hemingway, quoted by E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, vii. 387). Tying the tali to the bride is the common Hindoo symbol of marriage, like giving the ring with us. As to these Indian marriages to trees see further my Totemism and Exogamy, i. 32 sq., iv. 210 sqq.; Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. § 252, iii. §§ 12, 90, 562, iv. § 396; North Indian Notes and Queries, i. § 110; D. C. J. Ibbetson, Settlement Report of the Karnal District, p. 155; H. H. Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, i. 531; Capt. E. C. Luard, in Census of India, 1901, vol. xix. 76; W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, ii. 363; id., Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 115-121. I was formerly disposed to connect the custom with totemism, but of this there seems to be no sufficient evidence.