ABSTRACT
Muli’s family helps his sister Gurei to run away from her husband, who has been beating her. They then arrange her remarriage to a man named Krushna [a variant of Krishna] who claims he has never been married. The Bauris believe that an unmarried man must not marry a divorced woman; he must also be divorced. Consequently, Krushna, the new groom, goes through a ceremony in which he marries a tree trunk, divorces it, and then marries Muli’s sister.
The tree trunk, wrapped with five pieces of cloth to resemble arms, legs, and head, is symbolically not only the first bride but also the elder sister of the second bride. A ward leader, holding the tree trunk, acts the role of the tree-bride throughout all the ceremonies. The tree-bride and groom are considered married for four days. But at that time the groom refuses to consummate the marriage, saying that when he touched the tree-bride, she scolded him with a terrible curse: “Die from cholera! Die from the goddess Chandi!” He demands and receives a divorce after paying her family compensation. The tree-bride’s symbolic father then substitutes his younger daughter, saying that he would like to maintain his relationship with the groom’s family. Bauri men sometimes marry the wife’s younger sister, usually if the elder sister dies or is barren.
The wedding of the groom with the second bride occurs immediately after divorce from the tree-bride. Significantly, many elements of this second ceremony of two divorcees are reversals of the first ceremony: both bride and groom sit on a bundle of straw rather than on a sacred marriage mat; they face west instead of toward the sacred east; and the family priest joins their left palms instead of the auspicious and pure right palms.
The tree-bride ceremony illustrates the flexibility of Bauri marriage systems, and the propensity of Bauris to adapt rituals to their social needs. Muli observes that marriages among Bauris frequently end in divorce: sister Gurei, the subject of this chapter, has been married four times.
