Stars, Moon, Sun

"All the sins I have committed in this life and previous lives are now destroyed as I walk step by step around this sacred fire."

So said, last week, famed Miss Nancy Ann Miller of Seattle, as she proceeded to embrace Hinduism, in order to become the third wife of the abdicated Maharaja of Indore, Sir Tukoji Rao Holkar (TIME, March 8, 1926).

Slowly she paced around a fire blazing upon the bank of the esteemed Godavari River, at Gangapur, India. Priests invoked in her behalf the whole pantheon of Hindu deities. At the conclusion of the ceremony she approached the potent High Priest Jagadgur Shankarcharva, touched his feet, received his blessing, and walked away no longer Nancy Ann Miller but the Hindu Maiden Devi Sharmista.

Interviewed she said: "My new name was that of an Indian Queen born centuries before Christ. ... I am now a Hindu, but I hope that the true spirit of Christianity will continue to guide me."

Three days later hopeful Maiden Devi Sharmista journeyed to Barwaha, a seat of the semi-royal family of her fiance. There she was welcomed by a retinue of swarthy nobles riding upon elephants. Deep and throbbing came the pulse of heavy drums.

No less than 17 separate rituals were required to transform the Maiden into a Maharani (courtesy title). The first ceremonies admitted her to Sir Tukoji's caste, and made her the adopted daughter of his potent kinswoman, the Princess Tara-bai. With her social status thus assured, she became by a second adoption the daughter of a Court functionary, Colonel Lam Bhate, whose duty it became to give her in marriage.

The wedding rites now rapidly ensued, and Colonel Lam Bhate explicitly declared: "For the God of Love, for Wealth, and for the Blessing of Procreation, to you I offer Devi Sharmista." When news of these words reached the bride's grandfather, Mr. Louis Schaefer, in Seattle, he exclaimed: "I'm sorry I wasn't there to give Nancy away. . . . That is a gentleman's job."

Meanwhile, at Barwaha, the nuptials had been completed by the ceremony of withdrawing a veil from between the lovers, a fire ceremony, and a rite which consisted in winding around the bodies of the bride and bridegroom a single symbolic, yellow cord. Lastly, the wedded couple descended from their marriage pavilion into the open and called to witness that they are man and wife some 500 wedding guests and the Stars, Moon and Sun.