Chitpavans Marriage Part II

The head of the house writes a letter asking the house and the family gods to be present during the marriage festivities. He marks it with redpowdor and places it in the god-house or devhara. To ask guests to the wedding, near of kin both men and women, come the day before the wedding and stay five days. Sometimes the girls people ask the guests by themelves and the boy's people by themselves in a different party. But generally one party goes to the house of the otber and the two parties join and make the invitations together. The formal invitation is known as akshat. At both houses, before either party starts, the priest takes two silver caps and fills them with gains of rice mixed with redpowder; he also takes a bag of cocoanats and betelnuts. Of the two silver cups he gives one to one of the women who is to go with the party and holds the other in his hands; the bag he gives to one of the servants who hangs it from his shoulder falling on his back or side. At the girl's rouse, if it has been arranged that the girl's party are to call at the boy's, both men and women dress in their best, and to hurry them the priest orders the musicians to play. Then the party starts, but not before they lay a few grains of coloured rice and a cocoanut in front of the house gods, bow to them, and ask them to be present at the wedding. At the same time the priest is asked to attend the boundary-worship and the troth-plighting. Then the party start, accompanied by the priest, musicians, servants, a couple of men with guns, and a gaily harnessed horse.

First go the men with guns, then the musicians followed by a boy on horseback, then the priest with the silver cup in his hands containing grains of red-coloured rice, then the men, behind them the women, and last a couple of servants, one of them with the cocoanut and betelnut bag under his arm; if it is evening there are a couple of torchbearers. In this way they go to the boy's house where the men, women, children, and priest of the boy's house are ready to start. The two parties go together to the temple of Ganpati. Here the men and the priests enter the temple, leave a pinch if coloured rice near the god, and pray him to be present at the marriage booth for fire days to ward of danger and trouble. They go to the houses of kinspeople, friends, and acquaintances. At each house one ot the priests lays a few grains of coloured rice in the host's hands and naming the house and the day asks him to the marriage. The women go into the house, lay a few grains in an elderly women's hands, and invite the family to the wedding, asking some to the dinners, some to stay for five days, and some to be present at the wedding ceremony. If they are near relations the inviters are given two cocoanuts, which are handed to the servants; if they are not near relations they leave the house after having given the invitation. When all the other guests have been invited their masters ask the priests to attend.

Either on the marriage day or on the day before, a stone handmill, a wooden mortar, and a couple of pestles are tied together with a cotton thread and hung with mango leaves and a gold neck ornament and kept in some secure part of the house. In the mortar are laid four pieces of turmeric roots, a bamboo basket with rice, a new date mat, and a winnowing fan with udid pulse. A little before five in the morning or at eleven, which-ever is the lucky hour, a girl or two is sent with music to call the women guests. In the women's hall a square is traced with red-powder and, three low wooden stools for the father mother and son are set in a line, covered with sacking, and a fourth is set for the priest at some distance in front. The priest gives into the father's hands a cocoanut, a betelnut, and two leaves, and leads the way followed by the father mother and boy to the family gods before whom the father lays the cocoanut and betelnut and leaves and asks if be may go on with the ceremony. They next go to the elder guests and ask their leave, and when the elders have given them leave take their seats on the three stools. The priest worships Ganpati, lays on the mat in front of the father a handmill to whose neck the father ties a couple of mango leaves and marks it in five places with lime and turmeric powder. Meanwhile five married women whose fathers and mothers-in-law are alive rub the boy and his father and mother with sesamum oil and sing songs while the father fastens the mango leaves to the grindstone. When the grindstone is ready, the father grasps the bottom of the handle, the mother grasps it holding her hand further up the handle than the father, and the boy grasps it holding his hand further up than the mother. Then the women drop in the udid pulse and the three,give the stone a few turns. After they have ground a little of the pulse, the father mother and boy leave their seats, and the five married women grind the pulse into fine powder singing in praise of the boy and girl. Next the bamboo basket, to which a silk bodice has been tied, is brought filled with rice. Mango leaves are tied to the pestles,and the father mother and son along the five married women help in pounding the rice. After a little pounding the married women are offered a little sugar or molasses and the pestles are put back in their places, care being taken that they do not strike against each other, as it is believed-that the knocking of pestles causes confusion and quarrels in a house. The hands of five married women are rubbed with turmeric, their brows are touched with redpowder, flowers are stuck in their hair, and the parents bow before them.

At the boy's house a quartz square is traced in the women's hall and a stool is set inside of the square, and the boy is seated on the stool with his legs resting on tali ground. A cup containing turmeric powder is given to the boy's mother who pours scented oil into it and either herself or the boy's sister takes a mango leaf, places a betelnut over it, and holding the leaf with both her hands, dips the end of the leaf into the can and with it five times touches the boy's feet, knees, shoulders and head. This is repeated five times by each of the four other married women. After they have done, the sister or any one of the five woman rubs the toy's body with turmeric, and taking him near the door of the booth, seats him on a stool, and bathes him. When his bath is over the boy goes into the house and puts on a fresh waisteloth. They now make ready to carry to the girl what remains of the turmeric. In a winnowing fan a married woman lays a pound or two of rice, two cccoanuts, some betalnut and leaves, cups containing turmeric redpowder and oil, and a robe and a bodice. The winnonwing fan is given to a servant to carry on his head, and the five married women with music accompany her to the girl's. On reaching the girl's the women are received and seated inside women's hall. The girl is brought out and seated on a stool which is placed in a square tracing, she is touched as the boy was touched five times over with a mango leaf dipped in turmeric, and bathed by her Sister. She is then seated on another stool, and the boy's sister presents her with a robe and bodice, rubs her hands with turmeric and her brow with redpowder and fills her lap with the cocoanut and betelnut and grains of rice. The laps of both the girl's mother and sister are also filled and the guests are presented with turmeric and redpowder and withdraw. Contd....