History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c22.s1.3

v1.c22.s1.3

The original inhabitants of Nepal are called Newars and belong as already stated to the Mongolian race. They are of short stature, but strong and muscular. They are flat faced and yellow. They do the agriculture as also the trade of the country and are thus true Vaiśyas according to the Bhagavadgīta. They are characterised like many Mongolian peoples by lax marital relations. A Newar girl when quite a child is married to a Bel fruit which then is thrown into a river. The girl is therefore never in want of a man when she is grown up, but can give him up if she is dissatisfied with him by simply placing two betel-nuts under his bed and walking out of his house. The story in the Mahābhārata is, therefore, not quite strange wherein it is stated that Pāndu when in the Himalayas said to his wife "Formerly women were unrestrained." In fact lax marital relations characterise most Mongolian Himalayan peoples and the ideas of Gandharvas and Apsarasas have developed out of them in the Hindu Purāṇas.