Section 8. Analogous Rites in India.
IN THE KANAGRA district of India there is a custom observed by
young girls in spring which closely resembles some of the
European spring ceremonies just described. It is called the Ralî Ka
melâ, or fair of Ralî, the Ralî being a small painted earthen image of
Siva or Pârvatî. The custom is in vogue all over the Kanagra
district, and its celebration, which is entirely confined to young
girls, lasts through most of Chet (March-April) up to the Sankrânt of
Baisâkh (April). On a morning in March all the young girls of the
village take small baskets of dôb grass and flowers to an appointed
place, where they throw them in a heap. Round this heap they
stand in a circle and sing. This goes on every day for ten days, till
the heap of grass and flowers has reached a fair height. Then they
cut in the jungle two branches, each with three prongs at one end,
and place them, prongs downwards, over the heap of flowers, so
as to make two tripods or pyramids. On the single uppermost points
of these branches they get an image-maker to construct two clay
images, one to represent Siva, and the other Pârvatî. The girls then
divide themselves into two parties, one for Siva and one for
Pârvatî, and marry the images in the usual way, leaving out no part
of the ceremony. After the marriage they have a feast, the cost of
which is defrayed by contributions solicited from their parents. Then
at the next Sankrânt (Baisâkh) they all go together to the river-side,
throw the images into a deep pool, and weep over the place, as
though they were performing funeral obsequies. The boys of the
neighbourhood often tease them by diving after the images,
bringing them up, and waving them about while the girls are crying
over them. The object of the fair is said to be to secure a good
husband. 1
That in this Indian ceremony the deities Siva and Pârvatî are
conceived as spirits of vegetation seems to be proved by the
placing of their images on branches over a heap of grass and
flowers. Here, as often in European folk-custom, the divinities of
vegetation are represented in duplicate, by plants and by puppets.
The marriage of these Indian deities in spring corresponds to the
European ceremonies in which the marriage of the vernal spirits of
vegetation is represented by the King and Queen of May, the May
Bride, Bridegroom of the May, and so forth. The throwing of the
images into the water, and the mourning for them, are the
equivalents of the European customs of throwing the dead spirit of
vegetation under the name of Death, Yarilo, Kostroma, and the rest,
into the water and lamenting over it. Again, in India, as often in
Europe, the rite is performed exclusively by females. The notion
that the ceremony helps to procure husbands for the girls can be
explained by the quickening and fertilising influence which the
spirit of vegetation is believed to exert upon the life of man as well
as of plants. 2