Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7 — John Shaqi
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
Of the marriage customs the following account is given in the Kurnool
Manual. "The Chenchus do not follow a uniform custom in respect to
marriage ceremonies. Their marriage is performed in three ways. A
man wishing to marry selects his own bride, and both retire for one
night by mutual consent from the gudem. On the following morning, when
they return, their parents invite their friends and relatives, and by
formally investing them with new clothes, declare them duly married. To
complete the ceremony, a meal is given to those assembled. The second
method is as follows. A small space, circular in form, is cleaned and
besmeared with cowdung. In the centre a bow and arrow tied together
are fixed in the ground, and the bride and bridegroom are made to
move round it, when the men assembled bless them by throwing some rice
over them, and the marriage is complete. According to the third mode,
a Brahmin is consulted by the elders of the family. An auspicious day
is fixed, and a raised pial (platform) is formed, on which the bride
and bridegroom being seated, a tali (marriage badge) is tied, and rice
poured over their heads. The services of the Brahmin are engaged for
three or four days, and are rewarded with a piece of new cloth and some
money. This ceremony resembles that of the ryot (cultivating) class
among the Hindus. It is evidently a recent Brahminical innovation. On
marriage occasions generally tom-toms, if available, are beaten, and
a dance takes place." In the second form of marriage, as described
to me, the bride and bridegroom sit opposite each other with four
arrows stuck in the ground between them. In Mackenzie's record it
is stated that the Chenchus make the bridal pair sit with a single
arrow between them, and, when there is no shadow, some elderly men and
women throw rice over their heads. The importance of the arrow with
the Chenchus, as with the Yanadis, is that the moment when it casts
no shadow is the auspicious time for the completion of the marriage
rite. The remarriage of widows is permitted, and the second husband
is said to be in most cases a brother of the deceased one.
As an example of the Chenchu songs, the following marriage song, sung
by two men and a woman, and recorded by my phonograph, may be cited:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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