Bael Vivah

In and around Kathmandu city, Nepal,on the high lands of Himalayan valley, we found a highly interesting and erudite community named ‘Newar’. The Newars maintain a highly literate culture and their members are prominent in every sphere, from agriculture, business, education and government administration to medicine, law, religion, architecture, fine art, and literature. But there are still a few harmless ritualistic practices, which certainly draws attention and raises some questions to the logical and scientific 21st century human mind.
One among them is ‘Bael(or Bel) – Vivah’, where a Newari girl is married to a bael fruit(Aegle mermalous) before she reaches her puberty. This is still a practice, which the Newars take so seriously. The bael-Vivah is carried out in typical grand Hindu marriage style, wherein every event is as per a regular wedding. At the day of bael vivah, the place is cleaned and swabbed with cow dung and red soil to make it pure. The girl is bathed and does fasting for the whole day until all the rituals finish. Kanyadan is also carried out, so is the walk around the holy fire seven times. A Brahmin girl the ‘Locantee’, act as Lord Shiva or normally stands in for the groom. She hold the bael fruit in her hand and carries out the duties of the bridegroom.
definitely there is a question arise – Why?
Well the actual reason is perhaps buried in the sands of past. According the folklore , it started at a time when the Ranas (Rajpoot kings) invaded the Kathmandu Valley, which was inhabited by the Newar community. It was during the time of Ranas, the dignity of the nubile Newari girls were under deep trouble. To protect them and to save their future generations, the Newar parents decided to marry off the girl children to the Bael fruit, as the Ranas used to respect the married women, their inhuman attitude towards the newari girls also changed. Some others think that the men were not always faithful to their women. Therefore by marrying a fruit the women does not have to worry about it running away with someone else.
It is also believed that, this custom signifies the worship of the “Devi”. The parents and relatives wash the hands and feet of the bride and take blessings, because the “virgin bride” is the epitome of the goddess herself. However the most significant aspect of the ‘Bael Marriage’ is that once married to Lord Kumar(representative of the eternal bachelor, son of Lord Shiva), the woman will remain pure and chaste and even if her husband dies after the marriage she would not be considered a widow, the case in point being that she is already married to the Lord. There is also a belief that, this ritual ensures that the girl acquires active and healthy reproductive powers.
Though this beautiful custom is not as bad as Child marriage, or create any adverse effect on the society, It is indeed seemingly strange in a scientific age like ours. And the absurdity only increases knowing the advances this community has made in different aspects of life. They are by no means a backward, illiterate community, where blind belief and meaningless rituals is a way of life. The question or concern here is not, whether this custom and many others like ‘Bahra’ continues or disappear. The question is when we will ultimately be a reasonable, Scientific, educated, rational human being.