Marriage is forbidden within the sept. In some localities persons
descended from a common ancestor may not intermarry for five
generations, but in others a brother's daughter may be wedded to a
sister's son. A man is forbidden to marry two sisters while both are
alive, and after his wife's death he may espouse her younger sister,
but not her elder one. Girls are usually wedded at a tender age,
but some Sunars have hitherto had a rule that neither a girl nor a
boy should be married until they had had smallpox, the idea being
that there can be no satisfactory basis for a contract of marriage
while either party is still exposed to such a danger to life and
personal appearance; just as it might be considered more prudent not
to buy a young dog until it had had distemper. But with the spread of
vaccination the Sunars are giving up this custom. The marriage ceremony
follows the Hindustani or Maratha ritual according to locality. [642]
In Betul the mother of the bride ties the mother of the bridegroom to
a pole with the ropes used for tethering buffaloes and beats her with
a piece of twisted cloth, until the bridegroom's mother gives her a
present of money or cloth and is released. The ceremony may be designed
to express the annoyance of the bride's mother at being deprived
of her daughter. Polygamy is permitted, but people will not give
their daughter to a married man if they can find a bachelor husband
for her. Well-to-do Sunars who desire increased social distinction
prohibit the marriage of widows, but the caste generally allow it.