| Marriage ceremony
After the proposal come, horoscopes of the boy and girl are compared.
A new ring is put on the girl's finger as a mark of sealing the proposal
.The nuptials start two or three days, ahead. The first day is the Jorondiya,when
a party of women from the bridegroom's side go to the bride's house and
formally presents her with bridal dresses and ornaments.
From this day
till the wedding the bride and groom have to undergo ceremonial baths,
every day, known Nowani.For this, water is specialty drawn (panitola)
)by women who go in a procession singing appropriate songs, to the
river or a tank. The night of the second day or the night before
the wedding day is Adhivasa. Both the bride and the groom and also their
mothers have to observe a fast on these days. A priest is engaged for
the rites on this day and he performs the
pujas, offering grams and pulses to Gods which are later distributed
as prasad, after
eating it only a vegetarian meal can be had at night. Women then
carry on the ceremony of gathiyan khunda in which, inside an enclosure
of cloth, they pound a kind of aromatic root to a pulp and apply
it on the boy's or girl's head and add oil to the pulp. This is an act
of purification. After, that night's meal, there will be no usual meal
for them and their parents till the marriage is over. Early morning of
the wedding day, the ceremony of daiyan diya is observed. The bride or
the groom is made to sit on the threshold of the bedroom, an elderly women
relative sits in front, takes two betel leaves in her two hands, dips
them into a bowl of curd and touches his or her cheeks, arms and feet
with the leaves.
Then after a ceremonial bath,
Shraddha of nine past generations is performed. The groom has to take
another ceremonial bath before he gets ready in the evening to start for
the bride's house. He and his party arrive at the bride's place a little
before Langa or Auspicious hour. He is ceremonially received at
the decorated gate by his would-be mother-in-law. Fistfuls of rice will
be thrown at him to drive off any evil spirit accompanying him. Then the
groom is led to the place under the pandal where the ceremony is to be
performed. Women continue to sing marriage-songs all the while. At the
appropriate hour, the bride is brought out and the priest starts the
Vedic rites. After all the ceremonies are over, the bride is taken
by the groom's party to the groom's house; she need not stay there from
that very day, but she must set her foot that day in her husband's house
and may go back home. On the third evening with the help of a priest,
offerings are made to two imaginary demons named Khoba and Khubuni for
smoothening the path of married life. Dowry is not asked for, but the
girl's father presents all necessary things which would be required in
married life.
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