(xxv)-Archha-parchha or Welcoming the Bride.

When the bride and bridegroom reach the bridegroom's place, the bride is welcomed with lighted torches and pounded turmeric in the same manner and with the same ceremonies as we saw at the bridegroom's ārchhā-parchha or welcoming ceremony at the bride's father's place. (See section xiii, page 18 ante.) At this time the mother of the bridegroom puts au iron wristlet (kharu) on the left arm of the bride and besmears vermilion on her forehead, and a number of other women of the bridegroom's lāndā sing indecent songs abusive of the bride.

(xxvi)—First day's Ceremonies at the Bridegroom's House.

Then a number of girls take their stand at the door of the bridegroom's hut and bar the entrance of the wedded pair until they are given a present (Duar-chhekōwni paisā). The bride's Lukupḍi pays them an anna or so, whereupon they leave the door.

When the pair enter the hut, a younger sister of the bridegroom washes the feet of the bride, and receives from the bride's Lükündi four pice for her trouble. Then bridegroom and bride are treated to a meal of rice and molasses. They are next conducted to the miniature tank previously excavated in the courtyard at the time of the Adhibash (vide ix, page 76 ante). And there a few married women, whose husbands are alive and living with them, bathe the bridegroom and bride.

One of the women now closes with her hands the eyes of the bridegroom who then takes out three cigarette-shaped mango leaves which were fastened on his arm at the Adhibash ceremony (page 76, ante), and buries them with his hands in the water of the miniature tank. Another woman then closes with her hands the eyes of the bride who has now to search for the mango leaves with her hands and bring them out one after another from the 'tank'. In some Jaghi clans a second sinduri rākāb ceremony is now performed in the following manner. The bride and bridegroom stand on the maṛōā or mud platform in the courtyard; and the bridegroom three times anoints oil on the

bride's forehead and puts vermilion marks on it as in the sinduri-rākab ceremony described above (xix, page 82 above); and the bride similarly puts oil and sindur marks three times on the bridegroom's forehead. Among the Kawan clan of Birhōrs, before bride and bridegroom enter the hut, a fowl is sacrificed in the courtyard and its blood is sprinkled on the young couple. The bridegroom's mother draws with rice flour moistened with water a chain of circular figures from the angan up to the door of the hut. On each circular figure is placed a mango leaf on cach of which the bridegroom and after him the bride treads in walking to the door of the hut.

In the evening the bridegroom's father treats his relatives and fellow tanda-people to a feast and drinking at which two of the elders in the manner already described offer libations of rice-beer and offerings of boiled rice to the ancestor-spirits before the assembled guests begin to eat and drink. Before they begin to eat, the bride stands before them with a large leaf-cup (khālā) filled with boiled rice, and the elders of the tundi ask her, " Henceforth will you always supply us with food in this way? If you promise to do so, we shall eat this food at your hands; if not, we won't take it ". The bride promises to find food for them; and they all fall to cating. After washing their hands and mouths, the guests take tobacco powder mixed with lime and go to their respective huts. Bridegroom and bride sleep in separate huts that night.

(xxvii)-The Chouṭha-Chouṭhi Ceremony.

Next morning both the bridegroom and the bride change their turmeric-dyed clothes which are then boiled in water mixed with ashes, cleaned, and put out to dry. After change of clothes, the bride carrying on her head a basket containing about a score of clay marbles and in her hands a lōṭā filled with water and covered over with a cup-leaf containing some molasses, proceeds on the way to her father's tända. Her husband carrying in his hands a bow and arrow and a leafy mango-twig follows her at some distance. As soon as the bride reaches the limits of her

husband's ṭāndā, she puts down on the ground the basket and the lōṭā and begins to run in the direction of her father's ṭāndā. At this, her husband leaves his bow and arrow near the basket left by his wife, and gives chase to her until he overtakes her. Seizing hold of her hand, he strikes her on her buttocks with the mango-twig in his hand, and leads her back by the hand to the spot where she laid down her basket and where the women of the tanda have in the meanwhile assembled. Arrived at the spot, the husband takes up his bow and arrow, the wife takes up the lōṭā of water covered over with the cup of molasses, and the wife's Lukundi takes up the basket containing clay marbles. The husband first shoots his arrow in the direction of his tanda. All follow the direction of the arrow. When the husband and the wife reach the spot where the arrow has fallen, the wife besmears the cheek of her husband with a little molasscs, then washes away the marks with a little water from her lōṭā, she then picks the arrow and hands it over to her husband. This precess of shooting the arrow and picking it up and anointing the cheeks with molasses and washing off the molasses with water, is repeated five times, so that the fifth arrow takes them near the bridegroom's house.

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Now the Lukundi stands beside the bride with the basket of clay marbles in her hands, and the bridegroom's Lūkundi stands beside him with a basket of similar clay marbles. The husband first throws five clay marbles, one after another, at the bride; but her Lūkūṇḍi, by standing in front of her, protects her from being hit. Now it is the wife's turn to throw five clay marbles, one after another, at her husband; and she betrays no reluctance to do so. The bridegroom's Lükündi, however, by placing himself before the bridegroom shields him from being hit. Then the wife returns to her husband's hut carrying the basket on her head and the husband follows her with his bow and arrow. Then they have a bath of cold water; after which the bride washes the feet of her husband. Finally the couple together visit all the thhans or spirit-seats in the village and make iōhar (obeisance) at cach thhăn.

In this Choutha-Chouthi ceremony we appear to find a reminiscence of the ancient practice of marriage by capture and a dramatic representation of the duties of husband and wife to each other.

(xxviii)-The Pichha-sețer Ceremony.

Three or four days later, three persons from the bride's father's tāndā,-including the teyāng or husband of the elder sister, if any, of the bride,-come to the bridegroom's place. On their arrival, the bridegroom takes charge of their sticks, and the bride washes their feet. Then they sit down and are given powdered tobacco mixed with lime to refresh themselves with. While chewing tobacco, they are asked by some elder of the bridegroom's tanda,-"Where do you come from? Where are you going?" They reply,-" We are come to these parts to look for strayed cattle (meaning, the bride). A herd of cattle (meaning, the bridegoom's party) had gone to our parts from this side. We had a she-calf. She joined the herd and came away in this direction, as we have found out by prognostication." The first speaker replies,-"Look out for your calf then; find her out, see whither she may have gone. "Ah! here she is ", cries one of the bride's relatives. "Well, then ", is the reply, "If she is your calf; you may take her home"

After this pleasant bantering, the guests are treated to dinner. Next morning, after breakfast, they take the girl on a temporary visit to her parents.

MISCELLANEOUS CONTRIBUTION.

I. The Nandas, Earlier and Later, and their relationship to the Mauryyas.

By Harit Krishna Deb, M.A.

Mr. K. P. Jayaswal, in his essay on the Śaiśunāka and Mauryya chronology,1 has suggested that the well-known term navananda, applied to the immediate predecessors of Chandragupta, should be translated as Neo-Nandas and not as the nine Nandas. This interpretation involves the idea of an older Nanda dynasty whom the newer Nandas supplanted. The older dynasty is easily identified with the two kings generally described as "Nandivardhana" and "Mahānandin" who preceded Mahapadma Nanda. In some MSS. of the Puranas, as Mr. Jayaswal has pointed out, these names are actually spelt "Nandavardhana" and "Mahānanda ", and it is possible that the former spellings were devised to keep the base-born Nandas distinct from their progenitors 2.

2. The Brihat-kathā of Guṇāḍhya, as preserved to us in the Sanskrit redactions, the Brihat-katha-mañjarī of Kṣemendra and the Katha-Sarit-Sagara of Somadeva, explicitly supports this hypothesis when it describes Chandragupta as pūrvanandasuta, i.e., "the son (or descendant) of the earlier Nanda." 3

1 J. B. & O. R. S., Sept. 1915.

The Bhagavata and the Vişņu Purāņas generally characterize only the baseborn Nandas as "Nandas". Some copies of the Vayu imply it. The Matsya does not know the appellation at all,

Kṣemendra says:—

चाणक्यनाम्ना तेनाथ शकटालगृहे रहः ।

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