Chitpavans Marriage Part VIII

At the girl's house in the women's hall a quartz square is traced and three low wooden stools are set, two in a line and the third in front. The girl's maternal uncle brings the girl in his arms and seats her on a stool and the boy walks in and sits to the right of the girl. On the front stool a new waistcloth is laid, and, with the priest's help, the bov and eirl worship the waistcloth by throwing turmeric and redpowder over it. When the worship is over her maternal uncle carries the girl in his arms to a mango tree. The priest follows and they sit on low wooden stools in front of, the tree, worship it, and go back to the house. Then comes the airini or bamboo basket worship, when, in a square tracing, the boy and girl are seated on two low wooden stools and the girl's mother places a ring of twisted cloth on the boy's head and on the ring of cloth the father sets the basket with dough lamps in it. The girl is seated on the boy's lap and he drops a pinch of sugar into her month.

She is then seated on the lap of the boy's priest, then on the boy's father's lap, then on the brother's lap, and they too drop a little sugar into her mouth. The boy and girl are then both seated on the girl's mother's lap and she puts sugar in the girl's mouth, and the ceremony ends. The robe and bodice the girl wore at the time of marriage are placed over the priest's hands and the boy worships them and along with a money present asks him to take them. The girl's father taking the girl in his arms goes into the marriage hall, and seating the girl by tuns on the lap of the boy's relations says to each, 'This my daughter whom up to this moment I have nourished as a son, do you likewise nourish as your son.'

Within five days after the marriage day, generally in the evening, comes tthe varat or marriage procession. In the girl's house the boy and girl are dressed in rich clothes and seated on low wooden stools before the house gods. The girl's sister puts a little curds on the boy's right palm and he sips it. He takes from the god-room an image of the goddess Annapurna and hides it in his hand or in his-pocket. The boy's sister ties together the hems of the boy's and girl's garments and they are seated on a horse, the girl in front of the boy. They start for the boy's house accompanied by men and women relations and friends with music and fireworks. On the way, if they pass a spot supposed to be haunted by evil spirits, a cocoanut is waved over the boy and the girl's heads, dashed on the ground, and cast away. At the boy's house, when the boy and girl alight, the horse's feet are washed and cooked rice sprinkled with redpowder is waved round the horse's body and thrown to some distance. On the threshold the boy's sister sets a pot filled with rice, and when the boy and the girl come near the pot, the girl knocks it over with her foot. The boy's sister refills it and the girl knocks it over again. This is repeated a third time. Then the boy tells the girl that his sister wants their daughter. The girl promises that if she has seven boys and the eighth is a girl she will give her in marriage to her sister-in-law's son. Then the sister fills the bride's hands with rice, and, with the boy walking close behind her and bending over and holding both her hands from behind and with his thumbs from time to time forcing out grains of rice, she walks till they reach their room where the marriage gods are enshrined. Here the boy and girl sit on low wooden stools before the gods, and after performing some rites the boy's relations tell him the bride's now name and this he whispers into her right ear.

In the same evening at the girl's house is the mndavapartani or marriage booth-returning. A feast is given to the boy's relations when a variety of dishes are prepared, and the feast lasts all night to near daybreak. After the feast the boy and his father are presented with a turban and the boy's mother with a robe and bodice. The guests receive a betel packet and a cocoanut and withdraw. Next comes the samaradhana or festive entertainment a return feast given at the boy's house to the girl's relations when a dish or two more of sweetmeats are prepared than at the girl's house.

The closing rite is the guardian-unshrining or devdevakotthapan. When the feast is over, at the boy's house his parents along with the boy and girl, and at the girl's house her parents alone, unshrine and bow out the marriage gods. The marriage gods are unshrined with the same details with which they were enshrined. The gods are brought out of the house in the same order in which they were taken into the house. All are put in a plate and the water from the Varun-pot is sprinkled over the gods and on the girl and boy and on the boy's patents. The mango leaves are plucked off the twigs are thrown on the top of the marriage hall and some of the ropes that bind the roof are loosened. Among rich Chitpavans the cost of a marriage varies from £.150 to £.250 (Rs.1500-2500); among the well-to-do from £.50 to £.100 (Rs. 500-1000); and among the poor from £.10 to £.25 (Rs. 100- 250).