Widows commonly remarry, and may take for their second husband anybody
they please, except their own relatives and their late husband's
elder brother and ascendant relations. In Chhattisgarh widows are
known either as _barandi_ or _randi_, the _randi_ being a widow
in the ordinary sense of the term and the _barandi_ a girl who has
been married but has not lived with her husband. Such a girl is not
required to break her bangles on her husband's death, and, being more
in demand as a second wife, her father naturally obtains a good price
for her. To marry a woman whose husband is alive is known as _chhandwe
banana_, the term _chhandwe_ implying that the woman has discarded,
or has been discarded by, her husband. The second husband must in
this case repay to the first husband the expenses incurred by him
on his wedding. The marriage ceremony for a widow is of the simplest
character, and consists generally of the presentation to her by her
new husband of those articles which a married woman may use, but which
should be forsworn by a widow, as representing the useless vanities
of the world. Thus in Saugor the bridegroom presents his bride with
new clothes, vermilion for the parting of her hair, a spangle for her
forehead, lac dye for her feet, antimony for the eyes, a comb, glass
bangles and betel-leaves. In Mandla and Seoni the bridegroom gives
a ring, according to the English custom, instead of bangles. When
a widow marries a second time her first husband's property remains
with his family and also the children, unless they are very young,
when the mother may keep them for a few years and subsequently send
them back to their father's relatives. Divorce is permitted for a
variety of causes, and is usually effected in the presence of the
caste _panchayat_ or committee by the husband and wife breaking a
straw as a symbol of the rupture of the union. In Chanda an image
of the divorced wife is made of grass and burnt to indicate that to
her husband she is as good as dead; if she has children their heads
and faces are shaved in token of mourning, and in the absence of
children the husband's younger brother has this rite performed; while
the husband gives a funeral feast known as _Marti Jiti ka Bhat_, or
'The feast of the living dead woman.' In Chhattisgarh marriage ties
are of the loosest description, and adultery is scarcely recognised
as an offence. A woman may go and live openly with other men and
her husband will take her back afterwards. Sometimes, when two men
are in the relation of Mahaprasad or nearest friend to each other,
that is, when they have vowed friendship on rice from the temple of
Jagannath, they will each place his wife at the other's disposal. The
Chamars justify this carelessness of the fidelity of their wives by
the saying, 'If my cow wanders and comes home again, shall I not let
her into her stall?' In Seoni, if a Chamar woman is detected in a
misdemeanour with a man of the caste, both parties are taken to the
bank of a tank or river, where their heads are shaved in the presence
of the caste _panchayat_ or committee. They are then made to bathe,
and the shoes of all the assembled Chamars made up into two bundles
and placed on their heads, while they are required to promise that
they will not repeat the offence.