Note 12 — Chapter XXVI · PERSONAL NAMES

More important is the custom of giving a cloth as the essential marriage ceremony. The two chief features of a Toda marriage are the giving of a loincloth to the girl and the salutation of the girl’s relatives by the husband. Similarly the essential feature of the irregular union between man and woman is that the mokhthodvaiol gives a cloak to the woman, and the Badaga name by which the relation has previously been known is derived from this fact—the man is called the “blanket man” of the woman. Throughout the greater part of the Malabar coast the essential feature of the marriage ceremony is that the man gives a cloth to the woman. The Nairs have two marriage ceremonies,12 of which the later, or sambandham, forms the actual alliance between man and woman. The ceremony of this marriage consists in giving a cloth, and various names for the ceremony, such as muntukotukkuka, vastradanam, putavakota and pudamuri, all mean “cloth-giving.” In South Malabar a marriage is dissolved by tearing up a cloth called kachcha,13 and among the Izhavas,14 the actual wedding ceremony consists of the gift of a cloth.