Mithila, a common civilization of both Nepalis and Indians in the border side in the Tarai, boasts of yet another equally surprising marriage culture. After the wedding, it's not the bride who goes to the groom's house. Instead, the groom has to stay back with the bride's family. However, this is not forever. Earlier, the groom had to live at the bride's house for a year. The couple would then come back to groom's house with or without child. However, if the couple returned with a baby, the husband and wife would receive a special welcome from the groom's family.
Nowadays, the groom stays at the bride's house for a few days only; not more than a week. According to litterateur Shyam Sunder Yadav, Mithila marriage culture is getting 'updated'. Due to a lack of time, people have changed the rules. "People lead fast lives now. So they have shortened the rituals," said Yadav adding that even till five years back the grooms would stay at bride's house for a month at the very least.
The culture of the groom spending months or days at the bridge's house after marriage could have come in existence to ease the complexities of child marriage, analyzes Yadav. Child marriage was very common in the community in the past. "The civil society leaders in the past might have thought it was a good idea to send the groom to the bride's house for some time to make things easier for the little girls at the beginning. But now, child marriage is not rampant and the rules are changing too," he said.
While child marriage is a dying culture in Mithila, the dowry issue is becoming bigger by the day, says Yadav.
Promoting Mithila Art
