MARRIAGE

Mapadik. It may happen that the head of a prominent family of caste requests the daughter of a friend or relative as wife for his son to bring two great families closer together by a bond of blood. Such prearranged marriages are decided upon at times when the boy and the girl are still children, and the marriage is performed as soon as possible after the girl comes of age and before they fall in love with someone else.

This must not be misconstrued as a form of the much publicized child-marriage of India; such marriages are rare, they do not take place until the girl is a woman, there is no law that enforces them, and there is always divorce to undo an undesirable union. Resides, if a girl suspects she is to be married against her will, she can arrange secretly to be kidnapped by a boy she likes. The mapadik marriage, or marriage by request, takes place more of ten with willing grown boys and girls of the nobilitv, to whom it is always desirable to marry within their caste, being of course more dignified than the customary ngorod, marriage by elopement.

The father of Gush's second wife, a noble chief (pungawa) , once lamented that all his three daughters had been stolen in ngorod and that his hopes that Sagung might have been asked for were frustrate, l when Gusti took her. Mapadik marriage is in general the oldfashioned, respectablc way for the feudal aristocracy to marry and perhaps originated with them, although, curiously enough, it is, still prevalent among the Bali Agas of the mountains.

Arrangements for the mapadik are started by the boy's father taking a ceremonial present of clothes, a ring, food, and sirih to the girl's relatives, who accept by chewing the sirih and giving in return a present in the girl's name. These acts establish the marriage contract, althougli it can be dissolved by infidelity on the part of either of those concerned. The boy continues to visit at the house of his future bride, bringing presents regularly and performing small services for his prospective father-in-law.

It is not uncommon that a betrothed couple may be permitted prenuptial intercourse (gendak) until the time comes for f' official legalization, the great marriage festival. Among the aristocracy, to whom the girl's virginity is of importance, the defloration of the bride acquires a certain ritualistic, barbaric aspect. In ubud, where old-style customs are still maintained, I was told of the procedure by which a mapadik marriage is consummated, a description which agrees with that given by De Kat Angelino his Huwelijksrecht.

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