Note 12 — Religion

(b) The more usual practice is as follows. When the son of the house attains a marriageable age, i.e., from fifteen to twenty years, his parents at once set to work to find a suitable bride for him. Having made their choice, they pay a visit to the prospective bride’s parents, taking with them certain presents in the form of rice, liquor, betel-nuts, &c., and formally ask the daughter’s hand for their son. If the presents are accepted by the girl’s parents, it is assumed that the proposal is favourably received, and the respective parents at once proceed to settle the amount of the bride-price (gádhan),12 which is always paid by the bridegroom’s family to the parents of the bride. In Darrang the amount so paid rarely exceeds Rs. 40/- to Rs. 60/-, though in Kamrup and Goalpara it is said to be often double these sums; and even larger still among the Rábhás, Saraniyás, &c. In paying this formal visit to the prospective bride’s parents, those of the bridegroom are always accompanied by some of the elders or leading men of their own village, these latter acting as witnesses of the marriage contract, and so constituting in their own persons a very effective, if irregular, system of marriage registration. The stipulated “bride-price” need not be paid at once, nor does the actual union take place for some months after the marriage-contract has been entered into. And in no case does the bride leave her parents’ home until puberty has been attained; so that the manifold and obvious evils inseparable from the system of infant betrothals, and the prohibition of the marriage of child-widows among the higher castes of Hindus, happily find no place whatever in the more wholesome domestic life of the Kacháris.