Note 7 — A

Marriage ceremonies. 8. The age for marrying girls is between five and ten, and the parents are disgraced if they do not marry their daughters at an early age. The boy’s maternal uncle (mâmu) arranges the marriage.7 There are no professional marriage brokers. The consent of the parents on both sides is essential, and the parties have no freedom of choice. When the preliminaries are arranged, the boy’s father sends to the girl’s father ten rupees and two loin cloths (dhoti). This is the invariable rate whatever the means of the parties may be. None of this becomes the property of the bride and bridegroom, except one of the loin cloths which is given to the bride; but her father is expected to spend the cash received on the marriage feast. No physical defects are a bar to marriage, and if after marriage the bridegroom discovers any defect in the bride he must take her home. But this very seldom happens because the relatives on both sides take care to inspect the bride and bridegroom before the preliminaries are arranged. The betrothal consists in the approval of the bride by the boy’s maternal uncle and his acceptance of a dinner from the father of the girl. After this the wedding day is fixed. Their marriages usually take place in the light half of the month of Mâgh (January–February). Five days before the wedding day, the matmângar ceremony is performed in the usual way. On the marriage day the bridegroom comes with his procession to the house of the bride. They are put up in a place (Janwânsa) arranged for their reception. On that day it is not the custom for the father of the bride to entertain the party. Next morning the bridegroom comes with his friends to the bride’s house, and going into the inner chamber, where she is hiding, drags her out into the courtyard. This, and the rule of not entertaining the friends of the bridegroom before the marriage, are obvious survivals of marriage by capture. In the courtyard is fixed up a sort of pavilion (mânro), in the centre of which is planted a branch of the sâl tree (Shorea robusta). The sâl is the sacred tree of many of the Dravidian races, and its use at marriages seems to imply that tree marriage was the original custom. Round this the pair walk five times, and then the bride’s father makes a mark with turmeric on the foreheads of both, and warns them to live in unity. After this the clansmen are fed, and the bride is sent home with her husband. When she arrives at the door of her husband’s house his sister (nanad) bars the entrance, and will not admit the bride until the bridegroom gives her a couple of pice. After this the bridegroom’s father feeds his clansmen, who return home next day. Before they enter their new home there is a sort of confarreatio ceremony when the pair have to sit down outside and eat together. The essential part of this marriage ceremony, which is known as charhauwa, because the bride is offered (charhâna) to the bridegroom, is the payment of the bride price and the marking of the foreheads of the pair by the father of the bride.