An important occasion for display among the Jats is known as the Paida
ceremony. This is sometimes performed by wealthy families when the head
of the household or his wife dies or a daughter is married. They get
a long pole of teakwood and plant it in the ground so that it stands
some forty feet high. Before being raised the pole is worshipped with
offerings of milk; a cart-wheel is tied to the upper end and it is
then pulled erect with ropes, and if any difficulty is experienced
the celebrant believes himself to be in fault and gives away some
cows in charity. On the axle of the cart-wheel is secured a brass pot
called kaseri, containing wheat and money, with a cloth tied over the
mouth. The pole is left standing for three days, and during this time
the celebrant feasts the Bhats or genealogists of the caste and all
the caste-fellows from his own and the surrounding villages. If the
occasion of the ceremony be a death, male and female calves are taken
and their marriage is performed; oil and turmeric are rubbed on their
bodies, and they are led seven times round the high pole. The heifer
is then given to a Brahman, and the male, being first branded on one
flank with a figure of a trident and on the other with a representation
of the sun and moon, is set at liberty for life, and no Hindu will
injure it. This last practice is, however, falling into desuetude,
owing to the injury which such animals inflict on the crops. A
Jat who performs the Paida ceremony obtains great consideration in
the community, and his opinion is given weight in caste disputes. A
similar liberality is observed in other ways by wealthy men; thus one
rich proprietor in Hoshangabad, whose son was to be married, gave a
feast to all the residents of every village through which the wedding
procession passed on its way to the bride's house. Another presented
each of his wedding guests with new cloth to the value of ten or
twelve rupees, and as in the case of a prominent family the number
of guests may be a thousand or more, the cost of such liberality can
be easily realised. Similarly Colonel Tod states that on the occasion
of their weddings the Jats of Bikaner even blocked up the highways to
obtain visitors, whose numbers formed the measure of the liberality
and munificence of the donor of the fête. Indeed, the desire for the
social distinction which accrues to generous hosts on such occasions
has proved to be the undoing of many a once notable family.