Wedding
cards of the Warli community
If we see the wedding cards of the Warli (adivasi) community
of Maharashtra it’s really amazing. The cards have more than 400 odd names of
family and friends, benefactors and well wishers etc. on the wedding invitation
card, this point out to the fact that there is a lot of unity among the people.
We may say that they are illiterate but when it comes to people close to their
hearts they are very sensitive and literally know everything about them. The
ones getting married try their best not to miss out on any names. It is said
that if the friends or relatives don’t find their names on the card they get
angry even to the extent of not talking and not even attending the wedding. The
quality of the card points out to the importance they give to this sacrament of
marriage. They spend a lot of money during the wedding feast. The celebration
is for two days. Most of the girls marry after the age of 18 and boys after the
age of 21. This shows that they have given up the practices of child marriage. The
people also permit widow marriage this shows that the people have got rid of
some social evils that they used to have in earlier days. The reverence the
people of this community of Maharashtra have for this union between man and women
is also commendable. They also respect the women, but the only setback is that
a man can have 2 wives while a woman marries only ones.
: this information is collected by interviewing and through friendly chat with woman, man and many
children from the Warli community of Gonde and also a few children of other
neighboring villages.
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