Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
'Boya, I have drunk the liquor brought by the bridegroom's father,
and thereby have accepted his proposal for a marriage between his son
and my daughter. I do not know whether the girl will afterwards agree
to go to her husband, or not. Therefore it is well that you should ask
her openly to speak out her mind.' The priest accordingly asks the girl
if she has any objection, and she replies 'My father and mother, and
all my relatives have drunk the bridegroom's liquor. I am a Savara, and
he is a Savara. Why then should I not marry him?' Then all the people
assembled proclaim that the pair are husband and wife. This done, the
big pot of liquor, which has been set apart from the rest, is taken
into the bride's house. This pot, with another pot of liquor purchased
at the expense of the bride's father, is given to the bridegroom's
party when it retires. Every house-holder receives the bridegroom
and his party at his house, and offers them liquor, rice, and flesh,
which they cannot refuse to partake of without giving offence."
"Whoever," Mr. Ramamurti continues, "marries a widow, whether it is her
husband's younger brother or some one of her own choice, must perform a
religious ceremony, during which a pig is sacrificed. The flesh, with
some liquor, is offered to the ghost of the widow's deceased husband,
and prayers are addressed by the Boyas to propitiate the ghost, so
that it may not torment the woman and her second husband. 'Oh! man,'
says the priest, addressing the deceased by name, 'Here is an animal
sacrificed to you, and with this all connection between this woman
and you ceases. She has taken with her no property belonging to
you or your children. So do not torment her within the house or
outside the house, in the jungle or on the hill, when she is asleep
or when she wakes. Do not send sickness on her children. Her second
husband has done no harm to you. She chose him for her husband, and he
consented. Oh! man, be appeased; Oh! unseen ones; Oh! ancestors, be you
witnesses.' The animal sacrificed on this occasion is called long danda
(inside fine), or fine paid to the spirit of a dead person inside the
earth. The animal offered up, when a man marries a divorced woman,
is called bayar danda (outside fine), or fine paid as compensation
to a man living outside the earth. The moment that a divorcée marries
another man, her former husband pounces upon him, shoots his buffalo
or pig dead with an arrow, and takes it to his village, where its
flesh is served up at a feast. The Boya invokes the unseen spirits,
that they may not be angry with the man who has married the woman,
as he has paid the penalty prescribed by the elders according to the
immemorial custom of the Savaras.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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