Note 51 — A

16. Marriage, except among the very poorest members of the caste, takes place in infancy. As an example of the arrangements the customs in the Mirzapur District may be described. The match is generally settled by the brother-in-law of the boy’s father or by the brother-in-law of the latter. In all cases the assent of the parents on both sides is essential. The father of the boy pays as the bride price two rupees in cash, two garments, and five sers of treacle and salt. No physical defect, which was disclosed at the time of the betrothal, is sufficient to invalidate the marriage. A husband may put away his wife for habitual infidelity; but a single lapse from virtue, provided the paramour be a member of the caste, is not seriously regarded. Widow marriage is permitted as well as the levirate; but if the widow does not take up with the younger brother of her late husband, she usually marries a widower. Children of virgin brides and widows married a second time rank equally for purposes of inheritance; but it has been judicially decided51 that an Ahîr, the offspring of an adulterous connection, is incapable of inheriting from his father. At widow marriage there is no regular ceremonial; the bridegroom merely goes to the woman’s guardian with two rupees and a sheet on a day fixed by the village Pandit. He pays the bride price and the woman is dressed in the sheet. He eats that night with her family, and next morning takes his wife home, and she is recognized as a duly married woman after the brotherhood have been feasted. If she marry outside the family of her late husband, his estate devolves on his sons by her first marriage; if there be no sons, to the brothers of her late husband. If she marry her husband’s younger brother, he acts as guardian of his nephews and makes over to them the property of their father when they arrive at the age of discretion. There is no fiction of attributing the children of the second to the first husband.