Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 5 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 5 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
They are divided into two sections, viz., Kora-vamsam, which reveres
the sun, and Naga-vamsam, which reveres the cobra, and have further
various exogamous septs or intiperulu, such as vemu or nim tree
(Melia Azadirachta), chikkudi (Dolickos Lablab), velanga (Feronia
elephantum), kakara (Momordica Charantia).
Girls are married either before or after puberty. The menarikam system
is in force, according to which a man should marry his maternal
uncle's daughter. On an auspicious day, some of the elders of the
future bridegroom's family take a cock or goat, a new cloth for the
girl's mother, rice and liquor to the girl's house. The presents are
usually accepted, and the pasupu (turmeric) ceremony, practiced by many
Telugu castes, is performed. On an appointed day, the bridegroom's
party repair to the house of the bride, and bring her in procession
to the house of the bridegroom. Early next morning, the contracting
couple enter a pandal (booth), the two central pillars of which are
made of the neredi (Eugenia Jambolana) and relli (Cassia Fistula)
trees. The maternal uncle, who officiates, links their little fingers
together. Their bodies are anointed with castor-oil mixed with turmeric
powder, and they bathe. New cloths are then given to them by their
fathers-in-law. Some rice is poured over the floor of the house, and
the bride and bridegroom measure this three times. The ends of their
cloths are tied together, and a procession is formed, which proceeds
to the bank of a stream, where the bride fetches tooth-cleaning
sticks three times, and gives them to the bridegroom, who repeats the
process. They then sit down together, and clean their teeth. After
a bath in the stream, the ends of their clothes are once more tied
together, and the procession returns to the bridegroom's house. The
bride cooks some of the rice which has already been measured with water
brought from the stream, and the pair partake thereof. A caste feast,
with much drinking, is held on this and the two following days. The
newly-married couple then proceed, in the company of an old man,
to the bride's house, and remain there from three to five days. If
the girl is adult, she then goes to the home of her husband.
When a girl reaches puberty, she is placed apart in a room, and sits
within a triangular enclosure made by means of three arrows stuck in
the ground, and connected together by three rounds of thread. From
the roof a cradle, containing a stone, is placed. On the last day, a
twig of the neredi tree is plucked, planted on the way to the village
stream, and watered. As she passes the spot, the girl pulls it out of
the ground, and takes it to the stream, into which she throws it. She
then bathes therein.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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