After the wedding the bride and bridegroom resume their seats and
the parents of the bride wash their feet in a brass tray, marking
their foreheads with rice and turmeric. They put some silver in
the tray, and other relations and friends do the same. The presents
thus collected go to the bridegroom. The Chandnahu Kurmis then have
a ceremony known as _palkachar_. The bride's father provides a bed
on which a mattress and quilt are laid and the bride and bridegroom
are seated on it, while their brother and sister sprinkle parched
rice round them. This is supposed to typify the consummation of the
marriage, but the ceremony is purely formal as the bridal couple are
children. The bridegroom is given two lamps and he has to mix their
flames, probably to symbolise the mixing of the spirits of his wife and
himself. He requires a present of a rupee or two before he consents to
do so. During the wedding the bride is bathed in the same water as the
bridegroom, the joint use of the sacred element being perhaps another
symbolic mark of their union. At the feasts the bride eats rice and
milk with her husband from one dish, once at her own house and once
after she goes to her husband's house. Subsequently she never eats
with her husband but always after him. She also sits and eats at the
wedding-feasts with her husband's relations. This is perhaps meant
to mark her admission into her husband's clan. After the wedding
the Brahmans on either side recite Sanskrit verses, praising their
respective families and displaying their own learning. The competition
often becomes bitter and would end in a quarrel, but that the elders
of the party interfere and stop it.
The expenses of an ordinary wedding on the bridegroom's side
may be Rs. 100 in addition to the bride-price, and on the bride's
Rs. 200. The bride goes home for a day or two with the bridegroom's
party in Chhattisgarh but not in the northern Districts, as women
accompany the wedding procession in the former but not in the latter
locality. If she is too small to go, her shoes and marriage-crown
are sent to represent her. When she attains maturity the _chauk_ or
_gauna_ ceremony is performed, her husband going to fetch her with
a few friends. At this time her parents give her clothes, food and
ornaments in a basket called _jhanpi_ or _tipara_ specially prepared
for the occasion.