7. Marriage.
Banjāra marriages are frequently held in the rains, a season forbidden to other Hindus, but naturally the most convenient to them, because in the dry weather they are usually travelling. For the marriage ceremony they pitch a tent in lieu of the marriage-shed, and on the ground they place two rice-pounding pestles, round which the bride and bridegroom make the seven turns. Others substitute for the pestles a pack-saddle with two bags of grain in order to symbolise their camp life. During the turns the girl’s hand is held by the Joshi or village priest, or some other Brāhman, in case she should fall; such an occurrence being probably a very unlucky omen. Afterwards, the girl runs away and the Brāhman has to pursue and catch her. In Bhandāra the girl is clad only in a light skirt and breast-cloth, and her body is rubbed all over with oil in order to make his task more difficult. During this time the bride’s party pelt the Brāhman with rice, turmeric and areca-nuts, and sometimes even with stones; and if he is forced to cry with the pain, it is considered lucky. But if he finally catches the girl, he is conducted to a dais and sits there holding a brass plate in front of him, into which the bridegroom’s party drop presents. A case is mentioned of a Brāhman having obtained Rs. 70 in this manner. Among the Mathuria Banjāras of Berār the ceremony resembles the usual Hindu type.[25] Before the wedding the families bring the branches of eight or ten different kinds of trees, and perform the hom or fire sacrifice with them. A Brāhman knots the clothes of the couple together, and they walk round the fire. When the bride arrives at the bridegroom’s hamlet after the wedding, two small brass vessels are given to her; she fetches water in these and returns them to the women of the boy’s family, who mix this with other water previously drawn, and the girl, who up to this period was considered of no caste at all, becomes a Mathuria.[26] Food is cooked with this water, and the bride and bridegroom are formally received into the husband’s kuri or hamlet. It is possible that the mixing of the water may be a survival of the blood covenant, whereby a girl was received into her husband’s clan on her marriage by her blood being mixed with that of her husband.[27] Or it may be simply symbolical of the union of the families. In some localities after the wedding the bride and bridegroom are made to stand on two bullocks, which are driven forward, and it is believed that whichever of them falls off first will be the first to die.