Ihi the bel biwah in newar Hindu rituals-a mock marriage

‘‘Ihi ’- The Bel Bibaha –A Mock Marriage  -                                           

   (An abrupt  translation by:  Mrigendra Raj Subedi  Rajopadhyaya)

 

Pitu  Beshmani Ya Nari Raja Pashatyasanshkrita

Sa Kanya Brishali Gyaneya Tadwarta Brishalipatam

                                                       Byasa smriti

      Meaning:An unmarried girl, at her father’s home, if sees her first means as adolescence, she loses her purity and finally bears down casted. The situation leads her towards BRISHALI-the lowest class girl or the most impure girl who is destined to get marry to lower lineage .Her bride too, is denied to commence the higher social status  from where he had come. Likewise, the man who gets marry to the BRISHALI, finally, loses his lineage and purity.

      Newar is the only ethnic cast of Sanatana- Hindus who take their daughter to the ritual function called ‘Ihi’ before her approach to puberty. For a female child, Newars celebrate IHI- a ritual function performed in mock marriage where the bride is represented by a Bel –a wood apple or it is a ceremony held for pre-adolescent lassie   .The discussion leads here to clarify the need of this ritual, according to Sanatana scripture. It is essential to look over the religious significance of this function in reference to Hindu scripture.

      It is the Hindu code that a girl is destined to get marry before she comes across her adolescence. Or else, she will have to be out casted if not married at her pre- adolescence.  The tale of Goma, of seven and Shiva Bhatta of seventy-seven‘s marriage at the Swasthani Katha is an ideal example of Hindu marriage. The epic called Agni Puran instructs the Sanatanis:  

Pitu beshmani ya nari raja pashyantyasanskrita

Sakanya brishaligyenya  tadwartabrishalipati .

     Hindu  scriptures suggest that one who doesn’t  have an opportunity to get marry before she come over an adolescence, she can take the course of mock marriage-the ‘Ihi’ . One of the greatest epics, the Kalika Puran suggests:

Anudha shriphalaisardhamudwahetpitribeshmani

Anena bidhina kanya rajadoshatpramuchete.

                                                 Aaditya Puran

     Meaning: The girl who takes the course of mock marriage at her pre-adolescence, a symbolic marriage with “bell: (an apple wood) does away the probable down fall of her purity. She can stay at her father’s home without getting married to a man even after her adolescence. She remains virtuous or chaste and pure. She never becomes a widow so long as she lives after her husband’s death. The mock marriage is a preventive course to it. The Brishali  kanya and her husband both are down casted . Pitri’s-the departed heavenly souls do not like them to see at the rituals called ‘Shraddha’which is an extract of Gautam Tantra. Gautam Tantra suggests at its third leaf:

Nirasha pitarayanti drishtwa cha Brishali patim

     The departed souls of fore-fathers feel sad and leave the offerings from the Shradha. These souls go hungry. They bestow a curse rather than a boon. Parashara  Smriti writes:

Praptetu dwadeshebarshe yah kanyam na prachhati

Masi masi rajastasya pibanti pitaronisham.

      Meaning:If a girl stays unmarried at her father’s home for twelve years from her birth, she is supposed to be a Brishili. The girl’s fore-fathers are obliged to try the monthly means of the girl every month. Such Brishlis are not ideal to perform Kanyadan: a ritual function, in which a virgin a vergin girl is given away on a bounty to an adolescent lad as her bride.

      The father will have to go down the hell of his daughter’s monthly means garbage dump when he does not perform the ritual-Kanyadana at her pre-adolescence.A girl who observes her adolescence before her marriage; she is not viable to get marry. If her father takes her to the ritual called Kanyadana after her adolescence, the father will have to go down the hell. The great sage called Byasa suggests all Hindus:

Bridha gauscha rajokanya brahnanasya kubhojanam.

Jirnabastranscha yo dadyat sa data nrakam brajat.

 

     Meaning:One who gives away an old cow, an adolescent girl, worn-out clothes and unsacred food to Brahmines at bounty ,is destined to go to the hell.

This suggested code of sage Byas created an unwanted compulsion to the parents of autistic, cripple deaf and dumb girls. No men ventured to get such girls marry. They were left to go over an adolescence which led the parents to dump down into the hell of urine and shit. In connection to this , the god of punishment ,Dharma Raj prayed the  supreme god  Bishnu to grant  and  explain a  remedy for  these parents  so that they won’t  have to go to hell. Bishnu suggested:

Pipplambusubarnam ba shreephalai sardha mudwohet

Yevirsaha samudwahe Brishalitwat pramuchyate .

(An extract from  Aaditya Puran)

     Meaning: If the girls could not get marry before her adolescence, she should  undergo  along  the mock marriage with peplum plant ,gold statue ,water  or  wood apple which reliefs that individual from all sins and saves the parents from going to the hell of urine and shit.

 

     The girl, who has gone under the mock marriage which has been explained before, will not be classified as an unchaste or twice-married, in case, she gets marry to a man after she has observed Ihi. The mock marriage leads those girls as married to the Supreme God –Vishnu and in -lists her never to be a widow. Such girls are known to   be a non-widow woman. In Newar tradition, they are known as Saubhagyanbati –symbolized to be a good luck lady. Saubhagyanbti ladies are always ideal for happy      auspicious   and religious moments, whereas, the widows are not allowed to take part in any gala moments.

     Newar tradition is a unique one, in the sense that their female child is married to the mighty God-Bishnu   embodying to the apple wood –fruit. But in the adolescence, these girls are married to a man, the God Incarnated (in the belief of the soul, represented by the apple wood an incarnated bride).Newar marriage is performed by bestowing garlands to each other.

This function is known as: Soyambera where the priest shouts the chanting as described in the conduct -Bidhan Khanda which reads:

Tadatma nara roopena hrityatradya mupasthita

Yasmaikasmaischa twam dattam kanyaka brayabaram

     Meaning: oh! Girl, here is the same soul in the form of a man who has represented your bride in the mock marriage with the apple wood then. You are suggested to bestow the garlands to the incarnated man. In the Swoyambara function, the priest reads:  “Bara badhu mukhabalokana” i.e.a function of face to face gazing of bride and groom .Shouting of this chant is clear. The final steep of the marriage function concludes by reading a verse of Bidhan Khanda :

Jestha bhrata pita mata toya dharya yadakrita

Brahmanagnisurhitskhyam  tena  udwahita  bhabet

Meaning: The first stanza of this verse represents the function-Ihi, that explains-

The elder brother, mother or father has bestowed waterfall in Kanyadan.

The second stanza of this verse explains the Swoyambara function in which the weeding procession is witnessed in the presence of relatives, fire and the priest. Only then, the groom is given a farewell.

     Newar’s mock and real marriages are so related. They are abruptly related. It’s a scriptorium phenomenon. Wanton criticism will be a cheap comment. Such a cultured and theosophical marriage is criticized by non-Newars. They make   a pre- nosive comment against Newar’s  Bel Bibaha- the ‘Ihi’.The cheap comments  that none- Newars make is groundles s. The above discussion concludes- a Hindu Newar girl is dedicated to Bishnu. She never becomes a widow.Therefore, stopping a girl being a Brishli, must be married as Goma of the Swasthani Brata katha or married to the apple wood fruit in the function- Bel Bibaha.