The social customs of the Injhwars resemble those of the lower Maratha
castes. [173] Marriage is forbidden between members of the same sept
and first cousins, and a man should also not take a wife from the sept
of his brother or sister-in-law. This rule prevents the marriage of
two brothers to two sisters, to which there is of course no objection
on the ground of affinity. Girls are usually not married until they
are grown up; but in places where they have been much subjected to
Hindu influences, the Injhwars will sometimes wed an adult girl to a
basil plant in order to avoid the stigma of keeping her in the house
unmarried. The boy's father goes to make a proposal of marriage,
and the girl's father, if he approves it, intimates his consent by
washing his visitor's feet. A bride-price of about Rs. 20 is usually
paid, which is increased somewhat if the bridegroom is a widower, and
decreased if the bride has been seduced before marriage. The marriage
is performed by throwing coloured rice over the couple. Divorce and
the remarriage of widows are permitted. A bachelor who marries a widow
must first go through the ceremony with an arka or swallow-wort plant,
this being considered his real marriage. The Injhwars usually bury the
dead, and in accordance with Dravidian custom place the corpse in the
grave with the feet to the north. When the body is that of a young
girl, the face is left exposed as it is carried to the grave. The
regular ceremonies are performed for the welfare of the deceased's
soul, and they try to ascertain its fate in the next incarnation by
spreading flour on the ground overnight and looking in the morning
for anything resembling the foot-mark of a human being, animal or
bird. On the festival of Akhatij and in the month of Kartik (October)
they offer libations to the dead, setting out a large pitcher of
water for a male and a small one for a female. On the former they
paint five lines of sandalwood to represent a man's caste-mark, and
on the latter five splashes of kunku or the red powder which women
rub on their foreheads. A burning lamp is placed before the pitchers,
and they feed a male Mali or gardener as representative of a dead
man and a female for a woman.