Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Kohbar In Mithila (कोहबर).




A room or a bed room converted during a Maithil wedding for rituals and customs is called kohbar (कोहबर). It is decorated before the wedding and is the most important part or place of Maithil's marriage. It has a great significance during the wedding. For four five days maximum time of bride and bride groom is spent in the kohbar, doing rituals. The rituals of wedding starts from the kohbar and ends in the kohbar.


The walls are decorated by the women. In previous days the kohbar walls were painted by the women and by home made natural colors. A kind of stick and cotton was used as a brush for that painting. Now a days the painting is painted on paper sheets and by the colors available in the market and is put on the walls. It is easy to paint and can be kept and used afterward. The decoration and painted walls of the kohbar was also kept for at least one year.


One side of the wall where most of the rituals and the customs are performed is well decorated and painted. The aripan (rangoli) is made on the floor. An elephant, two pots called ahibat purhar, made up of clay is also kept there. A mat is spread there and the bride and bride groom sits on it while performing the customs and rituals. But the actual wedding with vedic mantras is performed on the vedi, only chaturthi's wedding is performed in the kohbar, which is generally made in the courtyard.


For four or five days(for chhandog it is four days and for vachasnai it is five days) that is till chaturthi the bride and bride groom has to sleep in the kohbar. On the fourth or fifth day early in the morning the whole wedding process, except the pheras, is repeated in the kohbar. After this the wedding is complete. So, the role of the kohbar is obviously very important in Maithil marriage.


The painting which is painted on the walls of a kohbar is also called"Kohbar" and this is one of the style of the famous Madhubani Painting.


2 comments:

Pramod Singh said...

Is their any ritual in Kohbar, games are played? like that in Kohbar Ki Shart or the movie "Nadiya Ke Paar"?

Anonymous said...

Actually there are many, like one where the groom is supposed to comb his brides hair, make a knot for 3 times, then there's one in which he has to open the fist of his bride ( left hand) with his left hand only in which the bride is holding the janoouu and it's a kind of competition who wins and who succumbs relating it to the superiority or greater influence of that partner in marital life. Then there are other games too, played during Mohak rituals like Naina Jogan, and the one exchanging of plates with Dahi chura, & who lifts it the highest etc but mostly they are performed in Bhagwati-ghar.

 
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