Art. XVIII.—On the Har Paraurī, or the Behāri Women's Ceremony for Producing Rain

Extract

In a paper entitled ‘On some Ceremonies for Producing Rain,’ which I published in the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, I gave a short description of the Har Paraurī, or the “Behāri Women's Ceremony for Producing Rain,” to the following effect:—

“The other day I came across another curious custom, peculiar to this part of the country, the observance whereof is supposed to bring down rain. It was at about ten o'clock in the night of Saturday, the 25th June last (1892), as I was about to retire to bed, I heard a great noise made by the singing, in high-pitched tones, of some women in front of our house (at Chupra). I thought that the women were parading the streets, singing songs, as they often do before some marriage takes place in a family. But, on making inquiries next morning, I came to learn that the previous night's singing formed part and parcel of a rainbringing ceremony, known, at least in this district (Saran), as the Har Paraurī, and that some women of the locality had formed themselves into a little band and paraded the neighbouring streets, singing certain songs, which they superstitiously believed would surely bring down showers. Curiously enough, a tolerably good shower of rain fell during the afternoon of the following day.”