The Harim and the Purdah: Studies of Oriental WomenCooper, Elizabeth
Religion
The Harim and the Purdah: Studies of Oriental Women
Cooper, Elizabeth
East Asia -- Social life and customs; Women -- East Asia
A young Hindu boy is not supposed to chew betel-nut nor put flowers in
his hair until he is married. On the fourth day of the marriage
festivities the groom is given his first betel-nut by his
brother-in-law, and his head is wreathed with flowers. In a few castes
the bride has her left nostril bored on the fifth day of the marriage
and an ornament placed therein. After marriage in some parts of India
the woman wears a streak of red powder in the parting of her hair, and
in practically all provinces she wears the little round mark of wifehood
between the eyes, which, as age comes, is elongated, until gradually, by
the time that children and grandchildren cluster around her knee, the
little red mark has grown into a straight line, losing itself in the
whitening locks. In Mysore and in some of the southern provinces a woman
does not tuck up her dress in the back until she is married. Then an end
of the long sari, which is twisted several times around the body, is
brought from the front to the back and tucked into a belt, forming a
sort of trousers, and incidentally exposing more brown leg than we women
of the Western world think consistent with modesty.
At the final feast the bride and groom eat together from the same leaf
to show their complete union. This is the first and last time that the
wife will eat in company with her husband, if he is an orthodox Hindu
and not imbued with the new Western ideas. Always, in the future, she
will serve him his meal, and after he has finished she will eat with the
other women of the household and the smaller children, using the same
leaf which has done service for her lord and master.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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