Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Seite 272

SUDRA MARRIAGES
232
kind disposition of their husbands, and not in any way to
the training the latter have received 1
A Brahmin purohita does not usually preside at a Sudra
marriage unless the contracting parties are very rich and
of high position, and thus able to recompense him hand-
somely. Generally the ceremony is performed by one of
the mendicant Brahmins who go about selling Hindu
almanacs from door to door.
In each caste custom differs as to the manner in which
a bride is demanded, the sum of money paid for her, the
quantity and the value of her jewels, the colour and price
of the wedding garments, the arrangements as to who shall
defray the expenses of the ceremony, the number of feasts
provided for the guests, and the presents made to relatives
.
and friends.
Amongst the Sudras the erection of the pandal is one of
the most important and solemn of the ceremonies. It is
set up in the street, opposite the entrance-door of the house,
seven, five, or three days before the wedding festivities
begin.
As soon as it is put up a procession is formed,
accompanied by music, to fetch the ara-sani, that is to say,
a green branch of the sacred fig-tree with leaves on it.
This
planted in the centre of the pandal puja is offered
also votive offerings.
All present walk round it
in single file, making deep obeisance to it.
It represents
Vishnu, to whom the sacred fig-tree is specially dedicated,
and it remains in the middle of the pandal during the whole
of the ceremonies as the tutelary god of the festivity.
Processions round it take place at intervals, always accom-
panied by the same marks of respect. Another peculiarity
at a Sudra wedding is that a lamp is kept alight in a pro-
minent part of the pandal during the three days' festivities,
the wick of which is composed of 108 threads. Among
the Sudras also the number of earthen cooking-pots is
to
it
is
;
and
restricted to ten.
The Brahmin who presides at the marriage begins by
breaking one or more cocoanuts before the ara-sani, and
according as the nut breaks in this or that direction, favour-
able or unfavourable auguries of the future of the nev.lv
The spread of education, though it has not extended far amongst
Hindu women, is gradually changing many of these domestic evils. Ed.
1