Chitpavans Marriage Part III

The next ceremony is punyahavachan or holy-day blessing which is also called the devaksthapan or guardian-enshrining. It is performed either on the marriage day or on the day before the marriage. About seven in the morning both at the girls and at the boy's, in the centre of the marriage booth a married woman traces a square, and, in the square, places wooden stools in a line covered with a piece of woollen cloth, a blanket, or a woollen waistcloth. A fourth stool is set in front of the three and a fifth to the left for the priest. When these preparations have been made the boy and his parents sit themselves on the three stools and the priest on the fifth stool to the father's left. A little in front of them are spread carpets and mats on which begging priests or bhikshuks sit. Then the family priest leaves his stool and brings from the house a plate containing a number of articles of worship. On the stool in front of him the father places a basket with twenty-seven small heaps of rice and a betelnut on each heap, an earthen water-pot or avignakalash filled with rice, a piece of a turmeric root, a copper coin, some betelnuts, a sweetmeat ball, and an earthen jar with a betelnut and a copper coin inside and its mouth closed by mango leaves and a cocoanut. Before the stool on which these articles are laid is set a dish, a water-pot, and a cup and ladle. When everything is ready the priest goes into the house and says, 'We are too late; the worship cannot be finished till after dark.' This is to hurry the boy's parents who are dressing with care in their best clothes. The father comes out in a silk waistcloth, a shawl, and a second waistcloth folded round his head; the mother in a silk robe and bodice, and a shawl over her shoulders; and the boy in a silk waistcloth and a shouldercloth. If the mother owing to the recent death of a child or of some other near relation or in case she has them not, wears no ornaments, a near kinswoman among the guests takes off some of her own ornaments and in spite of objections makes the mother wear them.

When they are ready the priest puts in the father's hand a cocoanut and a packet of betel leaves, and, followed by the father the mother and the son, goes to the, household gods. The father lays the cocoanut and betel leaves before the gods, and he and mother and the the boy bow low to the gods and ask their leave to go on with the ceremony. Then, going to each of the elders of the family, including the widows, the priest says, They are come to ask your leave to perform the ceremony; and the father and mother bow before them. Then they follow the priest into the marriage hall. Before taking their seat they bow to the begging priests who muster in strength and have taken their seats on the carpets and mats, and lastly they bow to the family priest. They take their sents amid the blessings of the company. The father sits on the first stool, the mother on the one next to his right, and the boy on the third. The priest repeats verses and calls the name of the boy's sister. She comes with a plate containing a chaplet of flowers, a leaf-cup with milk, and another with wet redpowder or pinjar a box with redpowder mixed with cocoanut oil or kunku, a few grains of rice, and a lighted brass hanging lamp. She takes a pinch of redpowder and with it touches the priest's brow, sticks a few grains of rice on the redpowder, presents him with a cocoanut, and waves a lighted lamp before his face. Then she waves the lamp round the faces of a few of the leading Brahmans, then round the father and mother, and lastly round the face of the boy, and ties a chaplet of flowers round his head. Then the priest blesses the boy's sister, the mother waves the lighted lamp before her face, the father presents her with a cocoanut, and she retires.

The family priest places a betelnut in a leaf-cup to represent Ganpati and asks the father to worship it, while he and the begging priests repeat verses,and with his hand motions the father how to worship. The father takes a few blades of bent grass, and sprinkles water and sandal powder on the betelnut Ganpati, throws redpowder grains of rice and flowers over it, waves burning camphor frankincense and a lighted lamp round it, and lays sugar before it. He taken one of the two pots with the cocoanut stoppers, touches with the stopper his own, his wife's, and the boy's head, and sets the pot on the ground as before; he takes the same pot a second time and a third time, touches with it his own head and the heads of his wife and son, and lays it on the ground. He goes through the same performance with the second pot which he went through with the first. All the while the family priest repeats verses and the musicians play their sambal or nagara drums and their sur and sanai pipes. Three farthings to 3d. (½ - 2 as.) is given to each of the begging priests. The lamily priest calls the boy's sister and she comes carrying a lighted lamp. Then they go into the house, the girl with the lamp lighting the way following the father with a flat bamboo basket, his wife holding the earthen jars, and the priest with a water cup and ladle. When they reach the door of the god-room the girf with the lamp retires, and the father and mother lay the basket and the earthen jars before ihe house gods on a raised stool, and mark the gods with sandal paste, and bestrew them with gains of rice and with flowers. The boy goes into the house and hangs his chaplet and marriage coronet on a peg. The same ceremony with the same details is performed at the girls house.

Planet-worship or grihamak is performed with the help of three six or twelve Brahmans. When everything is ready for the worship they think on the god Ganpati and the worship is begun. A leaf-plate is spread on a low wooden stool and on the leaf grains of rice and forty-one betelnuts are laid and worshipped. The father purifies himself by sprinkling his body with water dropped from- a blade of darbha grass. A mound or altar is made of sand and sprinkled with cowdung and water. Fire, which some married woman brings from the house, is set on the mound, and the priest fans the fire feeding it with cowdung cakes and pieces of firewood and repeating verses. Next comes the troth-plighting or vag-nischaya. The boy's father goes to the girl's house with musicians, kinspeople, the family priest, and servants carrying plates filled with ornaments and other articles. At the girl's they are seated in the marriage hall on carpets the begging and lay brahmans always sitting apart. After the guests are seated the priests from both houses exchange cocoanuts and embrace. After the priests have embraced, the fathers embrace, and then the elder males of both houses exchange cocoanuts and embrace. A quartz square is traced in the marriage hall and low wooden stools are set in the square. The girl's father sits on one stool. Meanwhile the girl, on whose brow a flower garland has been fastened, with her head covered with a piece of cloth called aginpasoda, is led by her sister and seated on the stool close to her father. The boy's father sits in front of them with priests to his left repeating verses.

The girl's father worships Varan thee god of water. He takes a leaf-plate and spreads about a pound of rice over it. He takes a copper water-pot, marks it in five places with sandal powder, fills it witn cold water, drops a betelnut, a blade of bent grass, and a silver coin into bunch of mango leaves. Over the bunch of leaves he lays a leaf-cup filled with rice and on the rice a beteluut. To the betelnut, as representing the god Varun, he presents sandal paste, flowers, sugar, a packet of betelunt and leaves, cocoanuts, and cash, bums frankincense, and waves a lighted lamp. The fathers mark the brows of their priests with sandal ind present them with turbans. They then mark one another'a brows with sandal and exchange turbans. Then each of the fathers takes five betelnuts and five turmeric roots, and the girl's father ties them to the hem of the holes father's waistcloth, and the boy's father to the hem of the girl's father's waistcloth. The fathers then hold the two bundles in which the turmeric roots and betelnuts are tied near each other, the priest rubs them with sand, and sprinkles water from the Varun-pot over them. The contents of both bundles are mixed and made into one heap and distributed among good and respectable begging guests. Next Shachi or Indra's wife is worshipped. On a leaf-plate pound or two of rice is spread and on the rice a beteluut is set and worshipped. At this Ganpati and Vauran worship the money placed before the god by the girl's father is doubled by the father of the boy. The priest repeats verses, lays on the girl's right palm a drop of curds milk honey and sugar, and she sips it.

The girl's sister ties a marriage ornament on the girl's brow and her priest tell's the girl's mother and her other relations that the boy's people have come to ask for the girl. They agree to let her go. The girl now leaves her place and sits on another stool in front of a picture of the house gods and throws grains of rice over it. The boy's father presents her with ornaments and clothes, and she walks into the house followed by the priest. She is dressed in the new clothes, the ornaments are put on her, and she is seated on a low wooden stool. The boy's mother lays before her a plate with rice, a betelnut and leaves, a cocoanut, redpowder, and a water-pot. In the house, the boy's mother, or some one on her behalf, washes the girl's feet and wipes them dry with a towel, rub turmeric on her hands and brow, and sticks rice grains over the redpowder. Then telling the house people that she is filling the girl's lap, she drops into it a handful of wheat, a cocoanut, a packet meat balls. The girl makes over the contents of her lap to some one close by, and walks away. The brows of the male guests are marked with sandal, the lay guests or grahasths are presented with packet of betel leaves and cocoanuts, and the, begging priests or bhikshuks are paid 3d. to 6d. (2-4 as.) and all retire.

After the priest takes a thread of the same length as the girl is tall, and adding to it a thread for every year the girl is old makes it into a wick, puts the wick into a lamp, the god Gaurihar, and feeds it with oil brought by the boy's relation in the brass pot. What remains of the wick are over, is carefully kept and burnt in the lamp at the worship of Mangalagauri which the girl performs in the month of Shravan or July-August. After the lamp is lighted the girl's mother is seated it and the boy's mother begins to wash her and her relations' feet, but as the boy's side is considered higher than the girl's the girl's mother objects and the boy's mother desists. The girls mother's lap is filleawith a robe, a bodice, some rice, and a cocoanut, and the laps of her relations with rice only.