As a rule no bride-price is paid, but occasionally an old man
desiring a wife will give something substantial to her father in
secret. There are two forms of marriage, called Thinga and Dajanha;
in the former, women do not accompany the wedding procession, and they
have a separate marriage-shed at the bridegroom's house for their own
celebrations; while in the latter, they accompany it and erect such
a shed at the house in the bridegroom's village or town where they
have their lodging. Before the wedding, the bridegroom, mounted on
a horse, and the bride, carried in a litter, proceed together round
the marriage-shed. The bridegroom then stands by the sacred post in
the centre and the bride walks seven times round him. In the evening
there was a custom of dressing the principal male relatives of the
bridegroom in women's clothes and making them dance, but this is now
being discarded. On the fifth day is held a rite called Palkachar. A
new cot is provided by the bride's father, and on it is spread a red
cloth. The couple are seated on this with their hands entwined, and
their relations come and make them presents. If the bridegroom catches
hold of the dress of his mother- or father-in-law, they are expected
to make him a handsome present. In other respects the wedding follows
the ordinary Hindu ritual. Widow-marriage and divorce are forbidden
among the Parwars proper, and those who practise them go into the
lower Benaikia group.