V.-Marriage Customs of the Birhōrs.

By Sarat Chandra Roy, M.A.

(i)-Different kinds of Marriage.

MARRIAGE is considered indispensable for every Birhōṛ. Even most of their spirits or deities are believed to have each a husband or wife as the case may be. It is only after a person enters the married state, that he or she is regarded as a full-fledged member of the tribe.

Although instances occur in a few Jaghi (settled) families of a girl being married as early as her eleventh or twelfth year and a boy as his sixteenth or seventeenth year, adult marriage is the rule among all Birhōrs. A boy is generally married when he is about twenty or twenty-one years old and a girl when she is about sixteen or seventeen. In a regular marriage (Sadar Bāplā), it is the parents of the bride and bridegroom who select a partner for their boy or girl and conduct all negotiations for the marriage. But there are other forms of marriage in which one or both of the parties choose for themselves.

The Birhōrs recognize at least ten different forms of union as constituting a valid marriage.

When a young man and a maiden are discovered to have been carrying on an intrigue, if they belong to the same gotra, the elders of the taṇḍā formally make over the girl to the keeping of her lover, and, when the latter or her parents are able to collect the necessary expenses, the customary bride-price is given to the parents, relatives and fellow-ṭanda-people are invited, vermilion is applied as in a regular marriage, and the usual marriage-feast is provided. This is known as the Namnāpām bāplā.

Tanda is the Birhōr term for a settlement or encampment.

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The Uḍra-uḍri bāplā is a purely elopement marriage. A young man and a girl form an attachment for each other, and, apprehending opposition to their union, secretly leave the village together and remain in hiding as husband and wife for some time. Subsequently, when they are found out, they are brought home, the customary bride-price is paid, sindur is applied, and a feast is provided to relatives and the tāndā people. In the Bōlō bāplā or Intrusion marriage, a maiden or a widow enters (forcibly, if necessary) the house of a man she loves, carrying on her head either a basket of the corolla of the mohua flower or a bundle of firewood, and stays in the house for a day or two in spite of all remonstrance or even persecution. She is then recognized as a Bōlō wife or a Dhūkni. In some cases it is believed that such a girl is attracted to her lover's house by some charm or medicinal root or powder administered to her through an intermediary. Generally, however, the lover's people do not object to this sort of intrusion, but treat the girl kindly. Even if she be a spinster, the girl's parents have no right to the usual bride-price, although, in practice, bride-price is generally paid to conciliate them, and sometimes even a sum of one rupee and four annas is paid in excess of the ordinary bride-price of nine rupees. This money is spent by the bride's people in a feast to their friends and relatives. The bride's people are also invited to a feast at the bridegroom's house where vermilion is applied to the bride's forehead. The Sipündür bāplā is the converse of the Bōlōbāplā. In this form of marriage, a young man who wishes to marry a particular girl but is not allowed to do so lies in wait for the girl with a little vermilion diluted in oil, and when he meets her alone applies it on her forehead. This is sometimes done at a market-place or at a fair; and, in such a case, the young man takes care to have with him a few friends to help him in resisting by force any opposition from the girl's people who may happen to be present.

The application of the vermilion to the forehead of the girl is considered to be tantamount to marriage; and even if the girl's people refuse to make her over to the man, but gives her in

marriage to another, such a later marriage will be considered a sānghā (or second) marriage and will not be attended with all the ceremonies required to be observed in a regular marriage of a spinster. Generally, however, the parents consent to the sipündür husband taking away the girl after having paid the usual bride-price and a fine of one rupee and four annas to the elders of the girl's ṭāndā. The usual wedding-feast is also provided.

When a man having a wife living, marries another woman, the form of union is known as Hirum bāplā. If the second wife is a spinster, the bridegroom has to pay one or two rupees in addition to the usual bride-price of nine rupees. If this second wife is a widow, this form of union is known as sānghā bāplā. The same name is also applied to the marriage of a widower to a widow or to a divorced woman. In such marriages the amount of the bride-price is only two rupees and eight annas besides a săṛi-cloth. The bridegroom, attended by three or five friends, takes the money and sāṛi to the bride's house, where the marriage usually takes place. The bride has her head well oiled and combed for the occasion. The bridegroom places on the ground an earthenware pot of oil and a little vermilion in a sal-leaf. The bride puts on the new suri and a female relative of hers takes up a little vermilion from the leaf, mixes it in oil, and with a thin reed applies it on the parting of her hair. The bride now salutes all present by bowing down a little and touching her head with the joined palms of her hand. The bridegroom, too, salutes all present by raising his hands to his forehead. The bride's parents give a feast to the guests, after which the bridegroom and his party return home with the bride.

In the Kiring-jāwāe bāplā (Bought son-in-law marriage) the expenses required for the marriage are advanced by the father-inlaw and repaid in convenient instalments by the son-in-law. Although the bride is taken to the bridegroom's ṭāndā after the marriage, both bride and bridegroom return after a fortnight or a month to the bride's father's ṭāndā and both remain there until the bride-price is repaid.

The Golhat bapla or Gua-badla (marriage by exchange of betel-nuts) is an exchange marriage for which no cash payment has to be made, one family exchanging a son or nephew and a daughter or niece respectively for a bride and a bridegroom from the other family. In other words, a man gives his daughter or niece in marriage to the son or nephew of another Birhōr and takes in exchange the latter's daughter or niece as a bride for his own son or nephew. With the exception of the payment of bride-price, the same ceremonies are observed as in the case of a regular marriage (sadar bāplā).

In the Beng-kāṛhi bāplā, the bride, owing to her parents' poverty, is taken to the bridegroom's house to be married. In other respects the ceremonies are the same as in a regular marriage.

I shall now proceed to describe the procedure followed and the eeremonies observed at a regular Birhōr marriage known as Sadar Bāplā (equivalent to the Kirin bahu form of Santāl marriage).

(ii)—Marriage Negotiations.

When the father of a marriageable boy hears of a suitable girl, he sends a party of friends to the girl's parents. The party usually consists of three men. They generally start at such an hour that they may reach their destination a little before sunset. Arrived at the house, they leave their sticks outside the doorway. This is a notice to the inmates of the house that the party have come to negotiate for a bride. If the latter feel inclined to entertain the proposal, they indicate it by taking charge of the sticks and carrying them inside the house. A few female members of the family now come out with jugs (lōṭās) of water and wash the feet of the guests. Hunting nets are spread for them. to sit upon, and they are regaled with powdered tobacco mixed with lime. After a little friendly conversation, the guests lie down to sleep.

1 Sometimes the number is five or seven, but it must in no case be an even number.

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(iii)-Tāk-Chānṛhi.

The Naya himself goes there "Well, friends, what brings you sticks at the door of this hut.

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Next morning, the father of the girl informs the Nāyā of the arrival of the party proposing marriage. The Naya on being satisfied that it is a desirable match, orders the Diguar to assemble the people of the tanda on the open space (ūngan) before the girl's father's hut. and thus addresses the party: here? You have placed your What may be your object? The people of the taṇḍā are afraid (apprehensive of some mischief)." The spokesman of the strangers replies, "We have not come to beat any one. have come to the hut where we saw the thing we liked. We are The waiting to see whether the thing will become ours. Nāyā then tells them : have come here after something you like, why should we disappoint you? We shall fulfil your wishes." Now the Diguar tells them, "Well then, come out with the customary dues (neg dastur). They thereupon place before the assembled men of the tanda one rupee and four annas as nātā-tarouni, and eight annas as gōṛdhowāi (money for feet-washing).

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A figure as in the diagram on the margin (figure I) is now drawn on the ground with rice-flour. A brass-plate is placed on the circle at the centre of the diagram, and on this plate a sum of rupees four is placed (Rs. 3 being the brideprice, and one rupee the price of the enga-bage or cloth for the bride). Four pice are also placed

Fig. 1.

by the side of the rupees as Panṛki-âṇḍā or eggs of the four rupees. At each of the four corners of the figure a pice is placed as chau-purni. The girl is carried on the arms of some relative and seated on the east of the figure with her face turned to the east. The father of the girl takes his seat on the west of the figure with his face turned eastwards. Now the people of the fāndā