Note 42 — B

Domestic ceremonies, Birth and Marriage. 3. The mother after birth is attended for six days by the Chamâin midwife, and then for six days by the barber’s wife. On the twelfth day the usual ceremony of purification is performed. The husband is debarred from cohabitation with his wife for six months after birth. When the child is able to walk, the ear-boring ceremony is performed, and after that the child must eat according to caste rules. Marriages are arranged by the family priest (purohit) and barber. When the proposal is accepted the envoys get a feast (bhâji) in the house of the bride. The betrothal is confirmed by the ceremony of marking (tîka) the forehead of the bridegroom by the father or one of the male relatives of the bride. Next day her envoys (tilakahru) after being entertained return home. Five days before the wedding is the matmangar, which is performed in the usual way,42 except that after worshipping the drum of the Chamâr, which is carried in the women’s procession, by marking it with red lead, the earth is dug by the oldest woman in the family, and carried by her and placed in the marriage shed. In the centre of the shed is fixed a branch of the sacred cotton tree (semal), and near it the holy water vessel (kalsa) is placed on a mound formed of the sacred earth. The usual anointing of bride and bridegroom, which is started by the Pandit, follows. A day before the wedding is the mantri pûja. In a special room some lumps of cowdung are fixed on the wall, and in them some blades of the dûb grass, mango leaves, and a bit of yellow cloth are fastened. On these the bridegroom pours a little butter, and then the worship of the sword (kharag) is done. A relative of the bride holds the sword in both his hands, and the bridegroom’s mother marks it with a mixture of ground rice and turmeric. Then an earthen pot full of sesamum grain is broken with the handle of the sword, and the grain scattered: an emblem, it is said, of the manner in which the enemies of the bridegroom who may dare to interfere with his marriage are to be scattered abroad. The sword is then placed in the middle of the marriage shed, an obvious survival of marriage by capture. After this a goat is sacrificed to the sword. In the evening there is a general feast known as bhatwân. This consists of rice and pulse, and must include cakes made of the urad pulse (bara). Before the bridegroom starts for the bride’s house he is bathed by the barber, and the water thus used is collected in a vessel and taken to the bride’s house, where it is mixed with that in which the bride is bathed. As the bridegroom starts his mother does the usual wave ceremony (parachhan) over him. At the bride’s village they are met by her friends, led by the barber, who brings a yellow cloth, which he lays on the roof of the bridegroom’s litter. At the bride’s door the bridegroom sits in a square and worships Gauri and Ganesa, which concluded, his future father-in-law marks his forehead with curds and rice. After this, food (kalewa) is sent from the bride’s house for the bridegroom and the boys with him, and in return his father sends five articles of jewellery for the bride, and a sheet (sâri) for her and her mother. With this is sent the water in which the bridegroom has been bathed. The bride is bathed in this and dressed in the sheet and jewels. The bridegroom then comes to the marriage shed, where his father-in-law washes his feet, and seats him in the square (chauk) on his left hand, while the bride sits on her father’s right hand. The pair then worship the household gods, of whom images are made in dough, and both mark the water jar and the branch of the cotton tree with red lead. Their clothes are knotted together, and they do the usual five revolutions round the cotton tree, while the bridegroom holds a winnowing fan (sûp) into which the bride’s brother pours a little parched rice each time as they go round. The bride sprinkles this grain on the ground out of the fan, and both retire into the retiring room (kohabar), the walls of which are decorated. There his mother-in-law takes off the bridegroom’s crown (maur) and gives him a present. Next day follows the confarreatio ceremony (khichari), which is done in the usual way. Next day the bridegroom takes home his bride, but before he starts his father goes and shakes down one of the poles of the marriage shed, for which he gets a present (mânro hilâi). On the fourth day after they return the ceremony ends by the barber’s wife taking the sacred jar (kalsa) and the festoons (bandanwâr) of the marriage shed, and throwing them into a neighbouring stream. On their return husband and wife offer a burnt sacrifice (homa) to the local gods (dih).