Marriage is adult, but the rule existing in Madras that a girl is
not permitted to marry until she can weave her own cloth does not
obtain in the Central Provinces. [7] As a rule the parents of the
couple arrange the match, but the wishes of the girl are sometimes
consulted and various irregular methods of union are recognised. Thus
a man is permitted with the help of his friends to go and carry off a
girl and keep her as his wife, more especially if she is a relation
on the maternal side more distant than a first cousin. Another form
is the Paisa Mundi, by which a married or unmarried woman may enter
the house of a man of her caste other than her husband and become his
wife; and the Upaliya, when a married woman elopes with a lover. The
marriage ceremony is simple. The bridegroom's party go to the girl's
house, leaving the parents behind, and before they reach it are met and
stopped by a bevy of young girls and men in their best clothes from
the bride's village. A girl comes forward and demands a ring, which
one of the men of the wedding party places on her finger, and they
then proceed to the bride's house, where the bridegroom's presents,
consisting of victuals, liquor, a cloth, and two rupees, are opened
and carefully examined. If any deficiency is found, it must at once
be made good. The pair eat a little food together, coloured rice is
applied to their foreheads, and on the second day a new grass shed is
erected, in which some rice is cooked by an unmarried girl. The bride
and bridegroom are shut up in this, and two pots of water are poured
over them from the roof, the marriage being then consummated. If
the girl is not adult this ceremony is omitted. Widow-marriage is
permitted by what is called the tika form, by which a few grains
of rice coloured with turmeric are placed on the foreheads of the
pair and they are considered as man and wife. There is no regular
divorce, but if a married woman misbehaves with a man of the caste,
the husband goes to him with a few friends and asks whether the story
is true, and if the accusation is admitted demands a pig and liquor
for himself and his friends as compensation. If these are given he
does not turn his wife out of his house. A liaison of a Gadba woman
with a man of a superior caste is also said to involve no penalty, but
if her paramour is a low-caste man she is excommunicated for ever. In
spite of these lax rules, however, Major Mitchell states that the
women are usually very devoted to their husbands. Mr. Thurston [8]
notes that among the Bonda Gadabas a young man and a maid retire to
the jungle and light a fire. Then the maid, taking a burning stick,
places it on the man's skin. If he cries out he is unworthy of her,
and she remains a maid. If he does not, the marriage is at once
consummated. The application of the brand is probably light or severe
according to the girl's feelings towards the young man.