As a rule, girls may be married before or after puberty, but the
Golkars of Chanda insist on infant marriage, and fine the parents if
an unmarried girl becomes adolescent. On the other hand, the Kaonra
Ahirs of Mandla make a practice of not getting a girl married till
the signs of puberty have appeared. It is said that in Mandla if an
unmarried girl becomes pregnant by a man of the caste the _panchayat_
give her to him and fine him Rs. 20 or 30, which they appropriate
themselves, giving nothing to the father. If an Ahir girl is seduced
by an outsider, she is made over to him, and a fine of Rs. 40 or 50
is exacted from him if possible. This is paid to the girl's father,
who has to spend it on a penalty feast to the caste. Generally,
sexual offences within the community are leniently regarded. The
wedding ceremony is of the type prevalent in the locality. The
proposal comes from the boy's family, and a price is usually given
for the bride. The Kaonra Ahirs of Mandla and the Jharia and Kosaria
Rawats of Chhattisgarh employ a Brahman only to write the _lagun_ or
paper fixing the date of the wedding, and the ceremony is conducted
by the _sawasins_ or relatives of the parties. In Chhattisgarh the
bridegroom is dressed as a girl to be taken to the wedding. In Betul
the weddings of most Gaolis are held in Magh (January), and that of
the Ranya subcaste in the bright fortnight of Kartik (October). At
the ceremony the bride is made to stand on a small stone roller; the
bridegroom then takes hold of the roller facing the bride and goes
round in a circle seven times, turning the roller with him. Widow
remarriage is permitted, and a widow is often expected to marry
the younger brother of her deceased husband. If a bachelor wishes
to marry a widow he first goes through the ceremony with a dagger
or an earthen vessel. Divorce is freely permitted. In Hoshangabad a
strip is torn off the clothes worn by husband and wife as a sign of
their divorce. This is presumably in contrast to the knotting of the
clothes of the couple together at a wedding.