Note 51 — Chapter VI

Communal marriage. Reference has already been made to the question of communal marriage in connection with the origin of exogamy. It has been observed that the evidence is insufficient to justify the belief that among any of the tribes or castes of this part of India the women are at the common service of all the men of the group. On the authority of a compilation entitled, “The People of India,”51 it has been regarded as established that “the Teehurs of Oudh live together almost indiscriminately in large communities, and even when two people are regarded as married the tie is but nominal.” This has been since quoted as one of the stock examples of communal marriage in India.52 Now of the Tiyars we have fairly complete accounts. The Oudh people of that name are a sept of Râjputs in the Sultânpur District, who do not appear in the enumeration of the last census. There is another body of Tiyars who are a sub-caste of the Mallâh, or boatman class, found to the number of 1,865 souls in the Ghâzipur District. They are numerous in Behâr and Bengal, and Mr. Risley has given a full account of them.53 There is no evidence whatever that anything like communal marriage prevails among them. The fact seems to be that by the necessities of their occupation the husbands leave their wives for long periods at a time and go on voyages as far as Calcutta. That a high standard of female morality is maintained during their absence it would be rash to assert: but this is very different from communal marriage. A rather better example comes from the Beriyas, one of the nomadic and criminal gypsy tribes. The girls of the tribe are reserved, in the Central Ganges-Jumna-Duâb, for prostitution, and if any member of the tribe marries a girl devoted to this occupation, he has to pay a fine to the tribal council. This is what Sir John Lubbock would term “expiation for marriage,” the annexation of the woman by one individual man of the group being regarded as improper.54 Dr. Westermarck, it may be remarked, disputes the connection of this custom with communal marriage.55