The remarriage of widows is freely permitted. As a rule it is
considered suitable that she should marry her deceased husband's
younger brother, but she may not marry his elder brother, and in
the south of Bastar and Chanda the union with the younger brother is
also prohibited. In Mandla, if she will not wed the younger brother,
on the eleventh day after the husband's death he puts the tarkhi or
palm-leaf earrings in her ears, and states that if she marries anybody
else he will claim dawa-bunda or compensation. Similarly in Bastar, if
an outsider marries the widow, he first goes through a joint ceremony
with the younger brother, by which the latter relinquishes his right
in favour of the former. The widow must not marry any man whom she
could not have taken as her first husband. After her husband's death
she resides with her parents, and a price is usually paid to them
by any outsider who wishes to marry her. In Bastar there is a fixed
sum of Rs. 24, half of which goes to the first husband's family and
half to the caste panchayat. The payment to the panchayat perhaps
comes down from the period when widows were considered the property
of the state or the king, and sold by auction for the benefit of the
treasury. It is said that the descendants of the Gond Rajas of Chanda
still receive a fee of Rs. 1-8 from every Gond widow who is remarried
in the territories over which their jurisdiction extended. In Bastar
when a widow marries again she has to be transferred from the gods
of her first husband's sept to those of her second husband. For this
two leaf-cups are filled with water and mahua liquor respectively,
and placed with a knife between them. The liquor and water are each
poured three times from one cup to the other and back until they are
thoroughly mixed, and the mixture is then poured over the heads of
the widow and her second husband. This symbolises her transfer to the
god of the new sept. In parts of Bastar when a man has been killed by
a tiger and his widow marries again, she goes through the ceremony
not with her new husband but with a lance, axe or sword, or with
a dog. It is thought that the tiger into which her first husband's
spirit has entered will try to kill her second husband, but owing to
the precaution taken he will either simply carry off the dog or will
himself get killed by an axe, sword or lance. In most localities the
ceremony of widow-marriage is simple. Turmeric is rubbed on the bodies
of the couple and they may exchange a pair of rings or their clothes.