Note 114 — K (continued 3)

According to the Kurnool Manual (1886), “the Pakanādus of Pattikonda and Rāmallakōta tāluks allow a widow to take a second husband from among the caste-men. She can wear no signs of marriage, such as the tāli, glass bangles, and the like, but she as well as her husband is allowed to associate with the other caste-men on equal terms. Their progeny inherit their father’s property equally with children born in regular wedlock, but they generally intermarry with persons similarly circumstanced. Their marriage with the issue of a regularly married couple is, however, not prohibited. It is matter for regret that this privilege of remarrying is much abused, as among the Linga Balijas. Not unfrequently it extends to pregnant widows also, and so widows live in adultery with a caste-man without fear of excommunication, encouraged by the hope of getting herself united to him or some other caste-man in the event of pregnancy. In many cases, caste-men are hired for the purpose of going through the forms of marriage simply to relieve such widows from the penalty of excommunication from caste. The man so hired plays the part of husband for a few days, and then goes away in accordance with his secret contract.” The abuse of widow marriage here referred to is said to be uncommon, though it is sometimes practiced among Kāpus and other castes in out-of-the-way villages. It is further noted in the Kurnool Manual that Pedakanti Kāpu women do not wear the tāli, or a bodice (ravika) to cover their breasts. And the tight-fitting bodice is said114 to be “far less universal in Anantapur than Bellary, and, among some castes (e.g., certain sub-divisions of the Kāpus and Īdigas), it is not worn after the first confinement.”