Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 7

Author(s): Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 131

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Vaishali Institute Research Bulletine No. 7
of the Hindu wedding-the Chheka (engagement), matkor (ritual digging of the soil), kanyadan (the formal giving away of the bride to the bridegroom) could be seen even now.
Even so, the Hindu wedding was not recognised by the local law before 1946. Under the Heathan Marriage Ordinance of 1860 some Hindu marriages were registered in British Guiana. Under the consolidated Immigration Ordinance no. 25 of 1891 which included the Marriage Law, provision was made for legalising under certain conditions the marriages celebrated according to the Indian rites in British Guiana. In Trinidad Ordinance no. 6 of 1881 provided for the registration of nonChristian marriages among new immigrants which had taken place prior to their arrival in Trinidad. Later in 1899 and again in 1904 the Indian Immigration Marriage and Divorce Ordinance was passed.30 But the Hindus by and large refused to get their marriage registered.
For the Hindus marriage was sacrament, it was permanent with divorce or remarriage not allowed in the higher castes. So the grand Hindu weddings continued with vedis (sanctorums) having manifold mystical signs on the marao or marwa (bamboo tent) where the knot was tied. Big barats (marriage processions in motor, lorries and cars were taken with drumming, etc. In some cases cows and calves were given to the bridegroom and jewelry (gold manohari, silbandhi, silver hasulis and silver and gold necklaces) was presented to the bride. 31 By the 1930s the bride was dressed in Indian sari and the bridegroom in the traditional jora-jama'. 32
The officiating pandits got good dakshina (dachhina) or fee. No wonder it was reported in April-June 1920 that the pandits reaped a good harvest. Some of them conducted more than a score of such ceremonies and in each case got a gift of a cow from the bride's parents and a lot of silver coins from the bridegroom's side.88 Naturally, the pandits generally opposed the Hindu Marriage Bill before it became an Act in 1946.
30.
J. C. Jha, “The Background of the Legalisation of Non-Christian Marriages in Trinidad and Tobago", in East Indians in the Caribbean : Colonialism and The Struggle for Identity, London, New York, 1982, p. 119. The Mirror, 11 May 1914. Trinidad Guardian, 1 March 1936. Trinidad Guardian, 4 May 1920,
31. 32. 3.