The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume IV of IV

R >> R.V. Russell >> The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume IV of IV

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6. The marriage-shed or pavilion

Before the wedding the women of the family go out and fetch new earth
for making the stoves on which the marriage feast will be cooked. When
about to dig they worship the earth by sprinkling water over it and
offering flowers and rice. The marriage-shed is made of the wood of
the _saleh_ tree, [57] because this wood is considered to be alive. If
a pole of _saleh_ is cut and planted in the ground it takes root and
sprouts, though otherwise the wood is quite useless. The wood of the
_kekar_ tree has similar properties and may also be used. The shed is
covered with leaves of the mango or _jamun_ [58] trees, because these
trees are evergreen and hence typify perpetual life. The marriage-post
in the centre of the shed is called Magrohan or Kham; the women go and
worship it at the carpenter's house; two pice, a piece of turmeric and
an areca-nut are buried below it in the earth and a new thread and a
_toran_ or string of mango-leaves is wound round it. Oil and turmeric
are also rubbed on the marriage-post at the same time as on the bride
and bridegroom. In Saugor the marriage-post is often a four-sided
wooden frame or a pillar with four pieces of wood suspended from
it. The larger the marriage-shed is made the greater honour accrues to
the host, even though the guests may be insufficient to fill it. In
towns it has often to be made in the street and is an obstacle to
traffic. There may be eight or ten posts besides the centre one.

7. The marriage-cakes

Another preliminary ceremony is the family sacrament of the Meher or
marriage-cakes. Small balls of wheat-flour are kneaded and fried in
an earthen pan with sesamum oil by the eldest woman of the family. No
metal vessel may be used to hold the water, flour or oil required for
these cakes, probably because earthen vessels were employed before
metal ones and are therefore considered more sacred. In measuring the
ingredients a quarter of a measure is always taken in excess, such
as a seer [59] and a quarter for a seer of wheat, to foreshadow the
perpetual increase of the family. When made the cakes are offered to
the Kul Deo or household god. The god is worshipped and the bride and
bridegroom then first partake of the cakes and after them all members
of the family and relatives. Married daughters and daughters-in-law
may eat of the cakes, but not widows, who are probably too impure
to join in a sacred sacrament Every person admitted to partake of
the marriage-cakes is held to belong to the family, so that all
other members of it have to observe impurity for ten days after a
birth or death has occurred in his house and shave their heads for
a death. When the family is so large that this becomes irksome it is
cut down by not inviting persons beyond seven degrees of relationship
to the Meher sacrament This exclusion has sometimes led to bitter
quarrels and actions for defamation. It seems likely that the Meher
may be a kind of substitute for the sacrificial meal, at which all
the members of the clan ate the body of the totem or divine animal,
and some similar significance perhaps once attached to the wedding-cake
in England, pieces of which are sent to relatives unable to be present
at the wedding.

8. Customs at the wedding

Before the wedding the women of each party go and anoint the village
gods with oil and turmeric, worshipping them, and then similarly
anoint the bride and bridegroom at their respective houses for three
days. The bridegroom's head is shaved except for his scalp-lock;
he wears a silver necklet on his neck, puts lamp-black on his eyes,
and is dressed in new yellow and white clothes. Thus attired he goes
round and worships all the village gods and visits the houses of his
relatives and friends, who mark his forehead with rice and turmeric
and give him a silver piece. A list of the money thus received is
made and similar presents are returned to the donors when they have
weddings. The bridegroom goes to the wedding either in a litter or
on a horse, and must not look behind him. After being received at
the bride's village and conducted to his lodging, he proceeds to the
bride's house and strikes a grass mat hung before the house seven
times with a reed-stick. On entering the bride's house the bridegroom
is taken to worship her family gods, the men of the party usually
remaining outside. Then, as he goes through the room, one of the
women who has tied a long thread round her toe gets behind him and
measures his height with the thread without his seeing. She breaks
off the thread at his height and doubling it once or twice sews it
round the top of the bride's skirt, and they think that as long as
the bride wears this thread she will be able to make her husband do
as she likes. If the girls wish to have a joke they take one of the
bridegroom's shoes which he has left outside the house, wrap it up
in a piece of cloth, and place it on a shelf or in a cupboard, where
the family god would be kept, with two lamps burning before it. Then
they say to the bridegroom, 'Come and worship our household god';
and if he goes and does reverence to it they unwrap the cloth and
show him his own shoe and laugh at him. But if he has been to one or
two weddings and knows the joke he just gives it a kick. The bride's
younger brother steals the bridegroom's other shoe and hides it, and
will not give it back without a present of a rupee or two. The bride
and bridegroom are seated on wooden seats, and while the Brahman
recites texts, they make the following promises. The bridegroom
covenants to live with his wife and her children, to support them
and tell her all his concerns, consult her, make her a partner of
his religious worship and almsgiving, and be with her on the night
following the termination of her monthly impurity. The bride promises
to remain faithful to her husband, to obey his wishes and orders,
to perform her household duties as well as she can, and not to go
anywhere without his permission. The last promise of the bridegroom has
reference to the general rule among Hindus that a man should always
sleep with his wife on the night following the termination of her
menses because at this time she is most likely to conceive and the
prospect of a child being born must not be lost. The Shastras lay it
down that a man should not visit his wife before going into battle,
this being no doubt an instance of the common custom of abstinence from
conjugal intercourse prior to some important business or undertaking;
but it is stated that if on such an occasion she should have just
completed a period of impurity and have bathed and should desire him
to come in to her, he should do so, even with his armour on, because
by refusing, in the event of his being killed in battle, the chance of
a child being born would be finally lost. To Hindu ideas the neglect
to produce life is a sin of the same character, though in a minor
degree, as that of destroying life; and it is to be feared that it
will be some time before this ingrained superstition gives way to
any considerations of prudential restraint Some people say that for
a man not to visit his wife at this time is as great a sin as murder.

9. Walking round the sacred post

The binding ceremony of the marriage is the walking seven times round
the marriage-post in the direction of the sun. The post probably
represents the sun and the walk of the bridal couple round it may
be an imitation of the movement of the planets round the sun. The
reverence paid to the marriage-post has already been noticed. During
the procession the bride leads and the bridegroom puts his left hand
on her left shoulder. The household pounding-slab is near the post
and on it are placed seven little heaps of rice, turmeric, areca-nut,
and a small winnowing-fan. Each time the bride passes the slab the
bridegroom catches her right foot and with it makes her brush one of
the little heaps off the slab. These seven heaps represent the seven
Rishis or saints who are the seven large stars of the constellation
of the Great Bear.

10. Other ceremonies

After the wedding the bride and bridegroom resume their seats and
the parents of the bride wash their feet in a brass tray, marking
their foreheads with rice and turmeric. They put some silver in
the tray, and other relations and friends do the same. The presents
thus collected go to the bridegroom. The Chandnahu Kurmis then have
a ceremony known as _palkachar_. The bride's father provides a bed
on which a mattress and quilt are laid and the bride and bridegroom
are seated on it, while their brother and sister sprinkle parched
rice round them. This is supposed to typify the consummation of the
marriage, but the ceremony is purely formal as the bridal couple are
children. The bridegroom is given two lamps and he has to mix their
flames, probably to symbolise the mixing of the spirits of his wife and
himself. He requires a present of a rupee or two before he consents to
do so. During the wedding the bride is bathed in the same water as the
bridegroom, the joint use of the sacred element being perhaps another
symbolic mark of their union. At the feasts the bride eats rice and
milk with her husband from one dish, once at her own house and once
after she goes to her husband's house. Subsequently she never eats
with her husband but always after him. She also sits and eats at the
wedding-feasts with her husband's relations. This is perhaps meant
to mark her admission into her husband's clan. After the wedding
the Brahmans on either side recite Sanskrit verses, praising their
respective families and displaying their own learning. The competition
often becomes bitter and would end in a quarrel, but that the elders
of the party interfere and stop it.

The expenses of an ordinary wedding on the bridegroom's side
may be Rs. 100 in addition to the bride-price, and on the bride's
Rs. 200. The bride goes home for a day or two with the bridegroom's
party in Chhattisgarh but not in the northern Districts, as women
accompany the wedding procession in the former but not in the latter
locality. If she is too small to go, her shoes and marriage-crown
are sent to represent her. When she attains maturity the _chauk_ or
_gauna_ ceremony is performed, her husband going to fetch her with
a few friends. At this time her parents give her clothes, food and
ornaments in a basket called _jhanpi_ or _tipara_ specially prepared
for the occasion.

11. Polygamy widow-marriage and divorce

A girl who becomes pregnant by a man of the caste before marriage is
wedded to him by the rite used for widows. If the man is an outsider
she is expelled from the community. Women are much valued for the
sake of their labour in the fields, and the transgressions of a
wife are viewed with a lenient eye. In Damoh it is said that a man
readily condones his wife's adultery with another Kurmi, and if it
becomes known and she is put out of caste, he will give the penalty
feasts himself for her admission. If she is detected in a _liaison_
with an outsider she is usually discarded, but the offence may be
condoned should the man be a Brahman. And one instance is mentioned
of a malguzar's wife who had gone wrong with a Gond, and was forgiven
and taken back by her husband and the caste. But the leniency was
misplaced as she subsequently eloped with an Ahir. Polygamy is usual
with those who can afford to pay for several wives, as a wife's labour
is more efficient and she is a more profitable investment than a hired
servant. An instance is on record of a blind Kurmi in Jubbulpore, who
had nine wives. A man who is faithful to one wife, and does not visit
her on fast-days, is called a Brahmachari or saint and it is thought
that he will go to heaven. The remarriage of widows is permitted and is
usual. The widow goes to a well on some night in the dark fortnight,
and leaving her old clothes there puts on new ones which are given to
her by the barber's wife. She then fills a pitcher with water and takes
it to her new husband's house. He meets her on the threshold and lifts
it from her head, and she goes into the house and puts bangles on her
wrists. The following saying shows that the second marriage of widows
is looked upon as quite natural and normal by the cultivating castes:

"If the clouds are like partridge feathers it will rain, and if a
widow puts lamp-black on her eyes she will marry again; these things
are certain." [60]

A bachelor marrying a widow must first go through the ceremony with
a ring which he thereafter wears on his finger, and if it is lost he
must perform a funeral ceremony as if a wife had died. If a widower
marries a girl she must wear round her neck an image of his first
wife. A girl who is twice married by going round the sacred post is
called Chandelia and is most unlucky. She is considered as bad or
worse than a widow, and the people sometimes make her live outside
the village and forbid her to show them her face. Divorce is open to
either party, to a wife on account of the impotency or ill-treatment
of her husband, and to a husband for the bad character, ill-health
or quarrelsome disposition of his wife. A deed of divorce is executed
and delivered before the caste committee.

12. Impurity of women

During her periodical impurity, which lasts for four or five days, a
woman should not sleep on a cot. She must not walk across the shadow
of any man not her husband, because it is thought that if she does
so her next child will be like that man. Formerly she did not see
her husband's face for all these days, but this rule was too irksome
and has been abandoned. She should eat the same kind of food for the
whole period, and therefore must take nothing special on one day which
she cannot get on other days. At this time she will let her hair hang
loose, taking out all the cotton strings by which it is tied up. [61]
These strings, being cotton, have become impure, and must be thrown
away. But if there is no other woman to do the household work and she
has to do it herself, she will keep her hair tied up for convenience,
and only throw away the strings on the last day when she bathes. All
cotton things are rendered impure by her at this time, and any cloth
or other article which she touches must be washed before it can be
touched by anybody else; but woollen cloth, being sacred, is not
rendered impure, and she can sleep on a woollen blanket without its
thereby becoming a defilement to other persons. When bathing at the
end of the period a woman should see no other face but her husband's;
but as her husband is usually not present, she wears a ring with a
tiny mirror and looks at her own face in this as a substitute.

If a woman desires to procure a miscarriage she eats a raw _papaya_
fruit, and drinks a mixture of ginger, sugar, bamboo leaves and milk
boiled together. She then has her abdomen well rubbed by a professional
_masseuse_, who comes at a time when she can escape observation. After
a prolonged course of this treatment it is said that a miscarriage is
obtained. It would seem that the rubbing is the only treatment which
is directly effective. The _papaya_, which is a very digestible fruit,
can hardly be of assistance, but may be eaten from some magical idea of
its resemblance to a foetus. The mixture drunk is perhaps designed to
be a tonic to the stomach against the painful effects of the massage.

13. Pregnancy rites

As regards pregnancy Mr. Marten writes as follows: [62] "A woman
in pregnancy is in a state of taboo and is peculiarly liable to the
influence of magic and in some respects dangerous to others. She is
exempt from the observance of fasts, is allowed any food she fancies,
and is fed with sweets and all sorts of rich food, especially in the
fifth month. She should not visit her neighbour's houses nor sleep
in any open place. Her clothes are kept separate from others. She
is subject to a large number of restrictions in her ordinary life
with a view of avoiding everything that might prejudice or retard her
delivery. She should eschew all red clothes or red things of any sort,
such as suggest blood, till the third or fourth month, when conception
is certain. She will be careful not to touch the dress of any woman
who has had a miscarriage. She will not cross running water, as it
might cause premature delivery, nor go near a she-buffalo or a mare
lest delivery be retarded, since a mare is twelve months in foal. If
she does by chance approach these animals she must propitiate them
by offerings of grain. Nor in some cases will she light a lamp,
for fear the flame in some way may hurt the child. She should not
finish any sowing, previously begun, during pregnancy, nor should her
husband thatch the house or repair his axe. An eclipse is particularly
dangerous to the unborn child and she must not leave the house during
its continuance, but must sit still with a stone pestle in her lap and
anoint her womb with cowdung. Under no circumstances must she touch any
cutting instrument as it might cause her child to be born mutilated.

"During the fifth month of pregnancy the family gods are worshipped
to avoid generally any difficulties in her labour. Towards the end of
that month and sometimes in the seventh month she rubs her body with
a preparation of gram-flour, castor-oil and turmeric, bathes herself,
and is clothed with new garments and seated on a wooden stool in a
space freshly cleaned and spread with cowdung. Her lap is then filled
with sweets called _pakwan_ made of cocoanut. A similar ceremony
called Boha Jewan is sometimes performed in the seventh or eighth
month, when a new _sari_ is given to her and grain is thrown into her
lap. Another special rite is the _Pansavan_ ceremony, performed to
remove all defects in the child, give it a male form, increase its size
and beauty, give it wisdom and avert the influence of evil spirits."

14. Earth-eating

Pregnant women sometimes have a craving for eating earth. They eat
the earth which has been mixed with wheat on the threshing-floor,
or the ashes of cowdung cakes which have been used for cooking. They
consider it as a sort of medicine which will prevent them from
vomiting. Children also sometimes get the taste for eating earth,
licking it up from the floor, or taking pieces of lime-plaster from
the walls. Possibly they may be attracted by the saltish taste, but
the result is that they get ill and their stomachs are distended. The
Panwar women of Balaghat eat red and white clay in order that their
children may be born with red and white complexions.

15. Customs at birth

During the period of labour the barber's wife watches over the case,
but as delivery approaches hands it over to a recognised midwife,
usually the Basorin or Chamarin, who remains in the lying-in room
till about the tenth day after delivery. "If delivery is retarded,"
Mr. Marten continues, [63] "pressure and massage are used, but coffee
and other herbal decoctions are given, and various means, mostly
depending on sympathetic magic, are employed to avert the adverse
spirits and hasten and ease the labour. She may be given water to
drink in which the feet of her husband [64] or her mother-in-law or a
young unmarried girl have been dipped, or she is shown the _swastik_
or some other lucky sign, or the _chakra-vyuha_, a spiral figure
showing the arrangement of the armies of the Pandavas and Kauravas
which resembles the intestines with the exit at the lower end."

The menstrual blood of the mother during child-birth is efficacious as
a charm for fertility. The Nain or Basorin will sometimes try and dip
her big toe into it and go to her house. There she will wash her toe
and give the water to a barren woman, who by drinking it will transfer
to herself the fertility of the woman whose blood it is. The women
of the family are in the lying-in room and they watch her carefully,
while some of the men stand about outside. If they see the midwife
coming out they examine her, and if they find any blood exclaim,
'You have eaten of our salt and will you play us this trick'; and
they force her back into the room where the blood is washed off. All
the stained clothes are washed in the birth-room, and the water as
well as that in which the mother and child are bathed is poured into
a hole dug inside the room, so that none of it may be used as a charm.

16. Treatment of mother and child

The great object of the treatment after birth is to prevent the mother
and child from catching cold. They appear to confuse the symptoms of
pneumonia and infantile lockjaw in a disease called _sanpat_, to the
prevention of which their efforts are directed. A _sigri_ or stove
is kept alight under the bed, and in this the seeds of _ajwain_ or
coriander are burnt. The mother eats the seeds, and the child is waved
over the stove in the smoke of the burning _ajwain_. Raw asafoetida
is put in the woman's ears wrapped in cotton-wool, and she eats a
little half-cooked. A freshly-dried piece of cowdung is also picked
up from the ground and half-burnt and put in water, and some of this
water is given to her to drink, the process being repeated every day
for a month. Other details of the treatment of the mother and child
after birth are given in the articles on Mehtar and Kunbi. For the
first five days after birth the child is given a little honey and
calf's urine mixed. If the child coughs it is given _bans-lochan_,
which is said to be some kind of silicate found in bamboos. The mother
does not suckle the child for three days, and for that period she is
not washed and nobody goes near her, at least in Mandla. On the third
day after the birth of a girl, or the fourth after that of a boy, the
mother is washed and the child is then suckled by her for the first
time, at an auspicious moment pointed out by the astrologer. Generally
speaking the whole treatment of child-birth is directed towards the
avoidance of various imaginary magical dangers, while the real sanitary
precautions and other assistance which should be given to the mother
are not only totally neglected, but the treatment employed greatly
aggravates the ordinary risks which a woman has to take, especially
in the middle and higher castes.

17. Ceremonies after birth

When a boy is born the father's younger brother or one of his friends
lets off a gun and beats a brass plate to proclaim the event The women
often announce the birth of a boy by saying that it is a one-eyed
girl. This is in case any enemy should hear the mention of the boy's
birth, and the envy felt by him should injure the child. On the sixth
day after the birth the Chhathi ceremony is performed and the mother is
given ordinary food to eat, as described in the article on Kunbi. The
twelfth day is known as Barhon or Chauk. On this day the father is
shaved for the first time after the child's birth. The mother bathes
and cuts the nails of her hands and feet; if she is living by a river
she throws them into it, otherwise on to the roof of the house. The
father and mother sit in the _chauk_ or space marked out for worship
with cowdung and flour; the woman is on the man's left side, a woman
being known as Bamangi or the left limb, either because the left limb
is weak or because woman is supposed to have been made from man's left
side, as in Genesis. The household god is brought into the _chauk_
and they worship it. The Bua or husband's sister brings presents to
the mother known as _bharti_, for filling her lap: silver or gold
bangles if she can afford them, a coat and cap for the boy; dates,
rice and a breast-cloth for the mother; for the father a rupee and a
cocoanut. These things are placed in the mother's lap as a charm to
sustain her fertility. The father gives his sister back double the
value of the presents if he can afford it. He gives her husband a
head-cloth and shoulder-cloth; he waves two or three pice round his
wife's head and gives them to the barber's wife. The latter and the
midwife take the clothes worn by the mother at child-birth, and the
father gives them each a new cloth if he can afford it. The part of
the navel-string which falls off the child's body is believed to have
the power of rendering a barren woman fertile, and is also intimately
connected with the child's destiny. It is therefore carefully preserved
and buried in some auspicious place, as by the bank of a river.

In the sixth month the Pasni ceremony is performed, when the child is
given grain for the first time, consisting of rice and milk. Brahmans
or religious mendicants are invited and fed. The child's hair and
nails are cut for the first time on the Shivratri or Akti festival
following the birth, and are wrapped up in a ball of dough and thrown
into a sacred river. If a child is born during an eclipse they think
that it will suffer from lung disease; so a silver model of the moon
is made immediately during the eclipse, and hung round the child's
neck, and this is supposed to preserve it from harm.

18. Suckling children

A Hindu woman will normally suckle her child for two to three years
after its birth, and even beyond this up to six years if it sleeps
with her. But they think that the child becomes short of breath if
suckled for so long, and advise the mother to wean it. And if she
becomes pregnant again, when she has been three or four months in this
condition, she will wean the child by putting _nim_ leaves or some
other bitter thing on her breasts. A Hindu should not visit his wife
for the last six months of her pregnancy nor until the child has been
fed with grain for the first time six months after its birth. During
the former period such action is thought to be a sin, while during
the latter it may have the effect of rendering the mother pregnant
again too quickly, and hence may not allow her a sufficiently long
period to suckle the first child.