At the age of 4, this girl
has just had her
adikarmala prepared by
the genealogist. Her
family will select a
husband from
this list.
[First, he writes the name of Durga, because "before writing anything, one should say or write her name."]
Today we will discuss the organization of the marriage records. There are two lawbooks that we followed in the origins of the panjis. One by Manu and one by Yagjavalkya. There it is written:
Neither sapinda nor gotra of the mother or father
may the Brahman's wife be.
On the mother's side leave five; on the father's, go to seven.
Adikarmala
Adikarmala is a list I must make for each Srotriya girl identifying all the families where it is permissible for her to marry. I always keep copies.
[He goes through some old ones he has on hand.] Here is a girl from Chanour, the daughter of Yamunanand Singh Jha. There are 242 boys' fathers on this list. Here is another one; there are 272 boys' fathers on this list. And here is one with 147 names.These girls were eight or ten when they were made. The fathers will pick them up when the girl is mature. There are cases of girls having only 13 or 17 names on the list; it all depends on khasti and panchami and how many relatives she has.[khasti = a line of 6 ancestors; panchami = a line of 5 ancestors]
When a girl is five her parents send a message for me to prepare her adikarmala along with an advance on the payment. Fifty percent of boys get adikarmala, and 100% of girls get it.
I also go the the village for upnayana [boy's sacred thread ceremony] and marriages to keep records. In this way I keep total records. I ask who has a daughter and I name them on a list. I spend 8 to 10 days work for each adikarmala. I try to see how she escapes the 29 ways. Everyone who is left, I put on the list. I write in red ink because it is auspicious.
To make the adikarmala, I must scrutinize the genealogies in 29 ways:
- 16 khasti lines -- 8 on the mother's side, 8 on the father's side
- 8 panchami lines -- five lines for the girl; four related to the girl's father's side, four related to the girl's mother's side
- 1 matrisapinda (the boy's mother's line)
- 1 santan ki katama (stepmother's family)
- 1 father's family
- 1 mother's family if a boy
- 1 samgotra
_____________ 29 ways
[Each loop is a male ancestor whose name is recorded in the genealogies. The diagram shows all the ancestral lines less than seven generations from the boy who is to be married and which therefore must be scrutinized by the panjikar for any overlap with the girl's ancestors which would make the marriage impure--that is, incestuous.]