A Baiga must not take a wife from his own sept or from another one
worshipping the same number of gods. But he may marry within his
mother's sept, and in some localities the union of first cousins is
permitted. Marriage is adult and the proposal comes from the parents of
the bride, but in some places the girl is allowed to select a husband
for herself. A price varying from five to twenty rupees is usually
paid to the bride's parents, or in lieu of this the prospective
husband serves his father-in-law for a period of about two years,
the marriage being celebrated after the first year if his conduct
is satisfactory. Orphan boys who have no parents to arrange their
marriages for them often take service for a wife. Three ceremonies
should precede the marriage. The first, which may take place at
any time after the birth of both children, consists merely in the
arrangement for their betrothal. The second is only a ratification
of the first, feasts being provided by the boy's parents on both
occasions. While on the approach of the children to marriageable age
the final betrothal or _barokhi_ is held. The boy's father gives a
large feast at the house of the girl and the date of the wedding is
fixed. To ascertain whether the union will be auspicious, two grains
of rice are dropped into a pot of water, after various preliminary
solemnities to mark the importance of the occasion. If the points
of the grains meet almost immediately it is considered that the
marriage will be highly auspicious. If they do not meet, a second
pair of grains are dropped in, and should these meet it is believed
that the couple will quarrel after an interval of married life and
that the wife will return to her father's house. While if neither
of the two first essays are successful and a third pair is required,
the regrettable conclusion is arrived at that the wife will run away
with another man after a very short stay with her husband. But it
is not stated that the betrothal is on that account annulled. The
wedding procession starts from the bridegroom's house [90] and is
received by the bride's father outside the village. It is considered
essential that he should go out to meet the bride's party riding on an
elephant. But as a real elephant is not within the means of a Baiga,
two wooden bedsteads are lashed together and covered with blankets with
a black cloth trunk in front, and this arrangement passes muster for
an elephant. The elephant makes pretence to charge and trample down
the marriage procession, until a rupee is paid, when the two parties
embrace each other and proceed to the marriage-shed. Here the bride
and bridegroom throw fried rice at each other until they are tired,
and then walk three or seven times round the marriage-post with their
clothes tied together. It is stated by Colonel Ward that the couple
always retired to the forest to spend the wedding night, but this
custom has now been abandoned. The expenditure on a marriage varies
between ten and fifty rupees, of which only about five rupees fall
on the bride's parents. The remarriage of widows is permitted, and
the widow is expected, though not obliged, to wed her late husband's
younger brother, while if she takes another husband he must pay her
brother-in-law the sum of five rupees. The ceremony consists merely of
the presentation of bangles and new clothes by the suitor, in token
of her acceptance of which the widow pours some tepid water stained
with turmeric over his head. Divorce may be effected by the husband
and wife breaking a straw in the presence of the caste _panchayat_
or committee. If the woman remains in the same village and does
not marry again, the husband is responsible for her maintenance and
that of her children, while a divorced woman may not remarry without
the sanction of the _panchayat_ so long as her husband is alive and
remains single. Polygamy is permitted.