Marriage payment: An aspect of marriage institution practiced among the Chikimis in Manipur
- Part 2 -

Priyadarshni M. Gangte *

Thadou Community presentation at Chin-kuki Group Folk Dance Festival :: May 23 2009

The Lakher

Marriage payment among the Lakhers was quite high and this worked as a deterrent to easy divorce and fortified the position of the wife. Like the Lushais, marriage payment in the Lakher-customs was shared by a long line of relatives even aunts of the bride have to receive part of it. Sometimes, sharing of the same was so complicated that litigations continued endlessly.

The main price was called 'angkia'. Higher clan Lakhers also adopted the custom of taking higher rate of 'angkia', which varied from 10 to 70 rupees. The different parts of the marriage payment, are the 'angkia', the 'puma', the 'nongcheu', the 'nangcheu', etc. All these prices have their own subsidiary prices .

The 'angkia'('Angkia' means house enter) as the main price is taken by the father of the bride. In some Lakher society, the 'angkia' is received by the eldest son (brother) for the eldest daughter. Likewise the youngest daughter's angkia goes to the youngest brother.

The next payment is the 'Puma'('Puma' has the same significance of that other prices.) which is payable only to the bride 'pupa' who is her maternal uncle. The rate at which 'puma' is payable depends on the rate of the angkia and if it is 60 rupees the rate of the 'pumapi' or 'puma' payment is also 60 rupees and is generally claimed when the couple settles down as man and wife.

The third marriage payment is the 'Nongchue'.( 'Nongcheu' is found to have exist only in the Lakher society.) which means 'the mother's price'. If the mother and father of the bride have been divorced, it is payable to the bride's mother. If they are still married, it is payable to the bride's mother's sister.

The fourth marriage payment is the 'Nangchue''Nangcheu' is equivalent to Niman or Niar, and it is sometimes replaced by 'Tini'), which means the aunt's price and is payable to the bride's eldest paternal aunt.

The Thadou / Kuki:

Among the Thadous, the marriage payment has an interesting legend . Chongthu was the younger brother of Nongmangpa, the Chief of the underworld. As per Thadou custom, in the presence of the elder brother called 'Upa', the younger brother called 'Naopa' cannot become a chief. So, Noimangpa, being the elder, was the chief, Chongthu also intended to become the Chief. Therefore, he went out in search of a suitable land where he could establish himself separately as a Chief. He found one.

On his plan to become a chief, he wanted to go with his own closed friends whom he could trust. Thus, he arranged for the marriage of each of his selected men. In doing so he made the marriage payments of each bride to their parents. In those days, no valuable property or cash was available. All the valuable items that one could think of was a 'Paigen'.

This was a belt made of leather and decorated with a kind of beads, called 'Longchang', in seven lines. This was then considered to be a very rare and valuable item of property. This could only be afforded by the chief alone. So, traditionally it became associated with the sole property, the right of which was vested only in the chief and was venerated very much being associated with a certain amount of superstition .

Chongthu being the younger brother of Noimangpa, the chief, had access to it and when he arranged for the brides of his friends with whom he planned to go to his newly found land, he paid the 'Paigen' to the parents of the girls as marriage payment. It so happened that though the commoners dared not refuse to accept the 'Paigen' when offered to them as marriage payment subsequently, they could neither dare keep it with them owing to their superstitions attached to it nor could they dare refuse the bride in marriage.

Thus, along with the bride, the parents returned the 'Paigen' to Chongthu saying that being a valuable property associated with the Chief exclusively, they dare not keep it or else, the wrath of the unseen supernatural power visit them and bring misfortune to them . This process went on and on until Chongthu was able to arrange 30 of his best and closest friends with the payment of 'Paigen' as the marriage payment.

Hereafter, marriage payment of every clan was paid in terms of seven mithuns based on the seven lines of 'Longchung' on the 'Paigen'. This however needs further investigation and confirmation, the prevailing different versions on the matter among the Thadou tribes needs specific enquiries. Our research into ethnicity and folk lores reveal that since then marriage payment came to exist though in actual practice there are variations among the clans in terms of kind and number of mithuns. However, assuming that the following structure is the broad base for marriage payment as propounded by Crawford.

Bride-Price Structure of Thadous:

Clan Price

1. Doungel

i) selsom (10 mithuns)
ii)dahpi ni (2 big copper gongs)
iii) dahbu ni (2 sets of three different small sizes of copper gongs)
iv) Khichang ni (2 ear beads)
v) Khichong ni (2 bead necklaces)

2. Sitlhou

3. Singson
i) Selsomlanga (15 mithuns)

4. Kipgen
i) selsom (10 mithuns)
ii) dahpi ni (2 big copper gongs)

5. Haokip
iii) Khichong ni (2 bead necklaces)
iv) Khichang ni (2 ear beads )

6. Chongloi
i) Selsagee (7 mithuns)
ii) dahpi khat (1 big copper gong)
iii) dahbu khat (1 set of three different small sizes of copper gongs)

7. Hangshing
iv) Khichang khat (1 ear bead)
v) Khichong khat (1 bead necklace)

Though Crawford's work is not comprehensive it serves an useful study on Thadou customary law for further exploration on the customary laws of the Thadous . Shaw, in his study on the Thadous, observed several deviations from what Crawford had specified in his work. He contended that the question of amount of marriage payment among the Thadous was not definite and commented that the chiefs and wealthy persons usually claimed and paid the equivalent of ten mithuns, Rs. 200/- in cash, 23 dahpi (large gongs), 2 dahpu (set of two gongs), 2 khichang (ear beads), 2 khichong (necklaces). He did not name any specific clan of the Thadous. He further opined that ordinary person often actually pay a couple of mithun, khichang and khichong.

As in an instance, he said that a pig in some cases may be taken as one mithun and that as per his personal experience he had come across cases where Rs. 40 had stood for 4 mithuns, a jar of 'ju' for a khichang or khichong. Thus in actual practice the parent of the bride hardly ever received the marriage-payment in full but in the form of more or less fictitious substitutes. He was emphatic in this regard to the effect that the parents loved to name large amounts as the 'man' not with any idea of getting it, but to be able to boast that their daughter was married for so much.

Often when enquired as to what precisely they had received, it was found that actually a much smaller amount had been accepted in full satisfaction by a system of fictitious values. This is very similar to the practices among the Lushais, Zomis, etc. Fictitious values have more often created false pretensions of wealth and richness, which became bones of contentions later and led to unhappy marriages.

It must also be mentioned that Hutton was convinced to have observed the fact that the first and last number of the marriage payment by mithun must necessarily be paid in mithun (selkeng-liding by this it means that marriage payment has to be by live-mithun). The first and the last marriage payment must in no case be substituted in any form of cash or kind.

Gangte another authority working on the marriage payment of the Thadous maintains that the marriage payment of the Singson Thadou is 30 mithuns without any other items added to it unlike the other Thadou clans. The higher rate of marriage payment among the Singsons has no origin according to him. It is said, the Singsons are the direct junior collaterals of the Sitlhous. So when their senior collateral (Sitlhous) increased the marriage payment the junior also deemed it proper to follow suit.

During the course of our research we found that one common conspicuous missing fact is that of 'Lutom Laisui', a very important and compulsory item in the marriage payment. It signifies the importance of father and mother of the bride. 'Lutom' is given to the father of the bride in token expression of gratitude. Likewise, 'Laisui' is an exclusive item to be given to the mother of the bride for having given birth to her daughter from her naval. Here, it must be said that, while the father is shown respect for his paternal masculinity, the mother too is highly respected for giving birth to the child.

In this regard, it is interesting to state that there cropped up differences between William Shaw and J.H. Hutton, who out of confusion literally dealt with the two terms out of ignorance of the language and meaning provided to the two items. Shaw attributed 'Lutom' as a gift given to the mother and 'Laisui' to the father. Hutton contended otherwise and explained that Shaw got it the wrong way round. In doing so, he explained saying that Laisui means a woman's waist-band, while Lutom is a man's loincloth. They were cloths for bride's parent and further contended that it could be accounted for a money payment of Re. 1/- and Rs. 2/- respectively, that a woman can claim for property and that a Thadou woman can make in her own account.

Similarly, we found another feature that has not been dealt with by the several authorities in regard to Manpi which stands for principal marriage-payment that consists of one mithun on the tail of which one piece of big bead 'khichang' through the ear of which the tail of the mithun can be made to pass through as a decorative piece (Ibid).

This bead is counted as equivalent to one mithun. Therefore, the Manpi or the principal mithun is counted as to bear the price of two mithuns. The principal mithun is expected to have given birth to as many calves as possible. It is believed that with such principal mithun included in the marriage payment similar number of many children are in return given birth by the bride. Therefore it is insisted that such principal mithun should necessarily reveal calf bearing .

We also observed that the broad based marriage payment as shown above is not totally followed by different clans. As for an instance, the Haokips of Chassad lineage known as the seniormost (piba) of the Haokip take ten mithuns inclusive of the principal mithun However, as for other junior lineages of the Haokip clan of the Thadou, the marriage payment is fixed at eight mithuns.

Another pertinent point we have observed i.e. the fact that though the marriage-payments of different clans are fixed it is customarily not paid in full throughout the life time of the bride. The practice of marriage payment is that provided the principal mithun accompanied by one or more subsidiary mithun can be paid, the remaining marriage payment be not necessarily in terms of mithuns. They can be substituted in kind. Symbolically the counting could represent mithun depending on the agreement between the groom's and bride's parties .

To be continued ....