Binayand Jha
8 July 1984
When the maharaja married his sister, he gave her to a
poor Brahman from Biththo village, but he was First
Shreni. The bride was 10, the groom was about 20. In
her dowry he gave "Mohanpur," a big house in Darbhanga,
which is now an Ayurvedic College. He had it built for
her. He also gave 1,000 acres five kilometers from
Darbhanga. She never went to live in Biththo. They only
had one son. When their son married, the maharaja gave
the bride a necklace worth nine lakhs rupees (Rs.
900,000) and she is still called the "naulakha bovasin,"
or "Nine-lakhs bride." She lives in Allahabad.
CB: Tell me about how your aunt became the Choti
Maharani. [The "little" or youngest
maharani]
The king approached my uncle Hansumani to marry a girl
from our family. This was because one of our ancestors
was guru to Maharaja Narendra Singh. The prince came
every day to our village to study with his guru, my
ancestor. Because of this, and because our family was
highest Jog and were famous as scholars and Tantrics,
they wanted a girl from here. . . . The king came with
servants, Brahmans, his staff, but not a true barat. At
night after the fire sacrifice they left and took the
bride immediately. They took her to the [marriage
house] in Rambagh Palace. . . .He built Choti
Maharani a separate suite in Nargona Palace since the
second queen had died there.
Two or three years later they held kohbar here at our
village of Mangarauni with the queen and did respects to
our Kula Devi. A huge barat came, big musicians,
dancers, kings from Gwalior, Jaipur, Jodhpur, they all
came, but stayed in Darbhanga. Only a few came here.
The king set up temporary arrangements. Danby was the
general manager to the maharaja and he arranged this,
tents and everything. . . . This was around 1942. . . .
It was in this very house. This place where we are
sitting was his treasury for expenses. There were
camels, horses, elephants, cars, palki. The palki was
decorated with gold. The whole village was wired for
electricity just for the duration. He distributed saris
and dhotis for ten villages around. Everyone got them.
All the British came in dhoti, pag, rudrakshmala, sandal.
Saujan was held on the fourth day of the second big
ceremony. Father and uncle went to a Sotipur village and
Srotriyas ate with them and they had a feast. From that
day they were promoted. By this feast the community
ratifies the king’s decree. Each person who ate
with father and uncle was given 2000 rupees because of
the risk.