Note 89 — Chapter VI

Runaway marriages. 26. The next form of marriage is the runaway marriage, which was dignified by the early Hindu lawgivers with the name of Gandharva, “the reciprocal connection of a youth and a damsel, with mutual desire, contracted for the purpose of amorous embraces, and proceeding from sensual inclination.”89 This prevails largely among the Dravidian tribes of the Central Indian plateau. At the periodical autumn feast the Ghasiya damsel has only to kick the youth, of whom she approves, on the ankle, and this is a signal to her relatives that the sooner the connection is legalised the better. We have the same custom in another form in the well known institution of the Bachelors’ Hall among the Orâons and Bhuiyas.90 This merges into the Mutʼah marriage, which is legalised among Muhammadans.