Girls are married at an early age when their parents can afford it,
the matches being usually arranged at caste feasts. In Chanda parents
who allow a daughter to become adolescent while still unwed are put
out of caste, but elsewhere the rule is by no means so strict. The
ceremony is of the normal type and a Brahman usually officiates,
but in Betul it is performed by the Sawasa or husband of the bride's
paternal aunt. After the wedding the couple are given kneaded flour
to hold in their hands and snatch from each other as an emblem of
their trade. In Mandla a bride price of Rs. 50 is paid.
The Kumhars recognise divorce and the remarriage of widows. If an
unmarried girl is detected in criminal intimacy with a member of
the caste, she has to give a feast to the caste-fellows and pay a
fine of Rs. 1-4 and five locks of her hair are also cut off by way
of purification. The caste usually burn the dead, but the Lingayat
Kumhars always bury them in accordance with the practice of their
sect. They worship the ordinary Hindu deities and make an offering to
the implements of their trade on the festival of Deothan Igaras. The
village Brahman serves as their priest. In Balaghat a Kumhar is put
out of caste if a dead cat is found in his house. At the census of
1901 the Kumhar was ranked with the impure castes, but his status is
not really so low. Sir D. Ibbetson said of him: "He is a true village
menial; his social standing is very low, far below that of the Lohar
and not much above the Chamar. His association with that impure beast,
the donkey, the animal sacred to Sitala, the smallpox goddess, pollutes
him and also his readiness to carry manure and sweepings." As already
seen there are in the Central Provinces Sungaria and Gadheria subcastes
which keep donkeys and pigs, and these are regarded as impure. But in
most Districts the Kumhar ranks not much below the Barhai and Lohar,
that is in what I have designated the grade of village menials above
the impure and below the cultivating castes. In Bengal the Kumhars
have a much higher status and Brahmans will take water from their
hands. But the gradation of caste in Bengal differs very greatly from
that of other parts of India.