Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/297

Rh with water fragrant with the choicest fruits and scents, clad her in a newly dyed garment, and caused her to sit down by a fire while the family priest performed a sacrifice. The bridegroom, who had also bathed and gone through auspicious ceremonies, was escorted by young unwidowed women to the house of his bride.

The actual marriage ceremony varied in detail in different localities, but agreed in the essential points. The bridegroom took the hand of the bride, and led her three times round a fire, reciting certain verses, such as, "Come, let us marry. Let us beget offspring. Loving, bright, with genial mind, may we live a hundred autumns." Each time he made her tread a millstone, saying, "Like a stone be firm." The bride's brother or guardian filled her hands with ājya, or fried grain, which she sacrificed to the fire. The bridegroom then caused the bride to step forward seven steps, reciting suitable words. The going round the fire, treading the stone, sacrificing the fried grain, and stepping forward seven steps, constituted the principal forms of the marriage ceremony. "And she should dwell that night," says Asvalayana, "in the house of an old Brahman woman whose husband is alive and whose children are alive. When she sees the Polar Star, the star of Arundhati, and the Seven Rishis (Ursa Major), let her break silence and say, 'May my husband live, and I get offspring.'" In like manner Sankhayana says, "Let them sit silent, when the sun has set, until the Polar Star appears. He shows her the star with the words, 'Firm be thou, thriving with me.' Let her say,