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AUGUST, 1926.)
MARRIAGE SONGS IN NORTHERN INDIA
157
Translation
A habit is not left, though tongue and beak be burnt. What sweetness is there in fire? Why does the partridge eat it ?
2.
It is right to eat fire, to get the body burnt. Shiva puts ashes on his body, then he has the company of the well-behaved!
Text.
. 3. Arani rati karan pai, ta dadhi sat dhari dîn Bhanu yoti parbad bhai; tab kirne chug lîn ?
Hansâ chhor, chakor chug ; Karanyahi Jamal ? Hausâ jányo agni hai; lawar swet hai kál.
Translation.
- 3. A woman painted her hand red and placed a pearl in it. When the sun shone brightly : who picked it up!
The swan left it, but the partridge picked it up : Jamal asks why ? 82 The swan thought the red hand was fire and the pearl its burning flame which meant death83.
5. Going to the Bridegroom's house. Sung by Ram Kishn, a Brahman and recorded by Hriday Ram, a Brahman of Dehra.
Explanation by Ramgharib Chaube. The interest of this song lies in the fact that firstly, it shows that marriages were formerly celebrated in the winter, E.g., Råma himself was married in Aghan. Secondly, it shows that the bride has a great dislike to her husband's unmarried sisters. This last is a common situation
Text. Barambar main puchhon, meri babal; kis ritu karoge byah, ji? Såwan no howai, beti; Bhadon no howai: Kåtik men karongî byah, ji. Sat shakal ka babi mandwâ rachwao, unche chundwo chatsal, ji. Am tab Kori mera dolwa re nikså : koyal shabad gunawai, ji. Tum kyon bolai, hariyali re koyal? Main chhora båbal ko desh, ji. Agar bhi chhofa ; bagar bhi chora; chhopî nagar ki sím, ji. Ki ham Awain, babi, kaj prayojan ? Ki ho ham chhakin chhamás, ji ? Ham hain, meri b&bi, chamak chiriya ; uți kar par ghar jayangi, ji. Pahile manri meri ghar phuaw; pher manri sasural, ji. M&yar rāwai, meri pålki bhijai; b&bul ghar ganbhir, ji. Bairin rowai mera mukh dhar anchta ; bhawaj Anand badhawa, jf.
Translation. . Continually I ask, my father: when shall I be married ? Not in Sawan, daughter, not in Bhadoh : in Katik 84 will you be married. There shall be built a marriage-shed of six kinds, and also high throne, my dear. My palanquin was placed by Koris under a mango tree, and the koil raised its voice.
O koil of the greenery, why dost thou sing? I am leaving my father's country. 91 These verses are clearly a riddle and its answer. The chakor or partridge is asked the riddle in the first stanza and it replies in the second : ho who burns himself or is burnt, is reduced to ashes and these ashes are rubbed on the forehead of the image of Shiva (Mahadeo).
82 Jamal is the composer's name and he asks the question, because the pearl is the swan's food 'mythologically) and not the partridge's.
83 Here again we have a riddle and its answer, both being conventional. # That is not in Summer, not in Autumn, but in Winter.
