jjttarakhand 131
-is the collector of wood, fetcher of water and has to bear/the brunt
of attending the daily cores of life while menfold .normally sit and
.drink. An interesting aspect of Jaunsari weddings is that the bride
goes to the bridegroom's house where the marriage ceremony is
performed. The bride's party is entertained by the groom's father.
Queerly enough, they still follow the example of their ancestors
and adhere to a polyandrous society where wives are priced and
exchanged freely. But in spite of the sexual liberty which a woman
enjoys, particularly at her parents* house, she is no more than a serf
who serves the pay master. Polyandry has bounded and glued the
families together and has helped in keeping the population down.
'Thus these people are still gripped by superstitions, orthodoxy,
.disease and sexual complications which has accounted for poor
education and backwardness in them.
All efforts of reform have fallen on rocks. An interesting story
is narrated about the wife of a Meerut Division commissioner.
Fired by an ideal of social reformation, the enthusiastic lady visited
interior parts of Jaunsar and collected local women round the
village tree and told her listners, through an interpreter, that poly-
.andry was a thing of the past; she advised one lady should have
one husband, gave her example that she was living with one man
for the last thirty years and she has never seen anyone else. The
attentive ladies threw panetrating glances at her and after quick
whispering exchanges one of the older ladies got up and said that
'well ladies* what she was trying to say is that for the last thirty
years she has been so unfortunae that she has not seen another
man. What a pity ?' The embarrassing remark was never trans-
lated to the enthusiastic lady but she could see from the fixed
faces that her appeal was lost.
Pastoral religion
Mahashu is the presiding deity of Jaunsaris according to
the District Gazetteer of Dehradun. Jhe origin of the Mahashu
as given by Hamilton and reproduced by Mr. Williams is rather
different. Hamilton supposes him to be of scythian descent and
related that according to Brahmanical tractions,at a remote era
of time ploughing in the Pargana of Bucan saw snakes which erec-
ting itself before him said, 1 am sent by the divinity, liaise
near %> place an image to be worshipped and callit the Mahashu