Tharus of Dang: Rites de Passage and Festivals

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| Kailash
another woman in the family; and the rest of the things to the
children.
Marriage among the Tharus is formalised by a series of
back and forth visits and feasting between affines. There is
no clear end to the marriage ceremonies. Rather the ritual
exchanges of hospitality simply become less frequent and less
elaborate. During the final stages of the marriage rituals
other villagers outside the family may be unaware of the minor
rites and obligatory visits which are still going on between
the bride's and groom's families.
B. Other Forms of Marriage
:
Apart from the proper forms of marriage, as described
above, there are a few other forms for arranging matrimonial
relations like re-marriage, levirate, the bhwar paithna and
urhari which will be discussed below.
So
bachelor
But there is an
Re-marriage is practised both by men and women after
either the death or the divorce from the earlier spouse.
unlike the case of high-caste Hindus, widow remarriage is
common among the Tharus. Usually a widower or a divorced
man marries a widow or a divorced woman. This is what happened
in the case of Biharilal,a widower of Sukhrwar who married a
divorced woman Gongi. But sometimes even an unmarried single
girl may marry a man who has already been married; a
may marry a woman who is divorced or a widow.
age limit for remarriage. Widows or widowers who are considered
very old (around fifty or more) do not remarry. Second mar-
riage for a man may be performed by barkā bhwāj if it is the
first marriage of his bride, or if the man himself is quite
young and has no children. Otherwise, the marriage is carried
out without any pomp and show or any ritual performance.
such cases the compensation is paid, or the promise of its
full payment is kept, with a premium of some money paid in
In