Girls should be wedded before maturity, as among most of the Uriya
castes, and if no suitable husband is forthcoming a nominal marriage is
sometimes arranged with an old man, and the girl is afterwards disposed
of as a widow. The boy's father makes the proposal for the marriage,
and if this is accepted the following formal ceremony takes place. He
goes to the girl's village, accompanied by some friends, and taking a
quantity of gur (raw sugar), and staying at some other house, sends
a messenger known as Jalangia to the girl's father, intimating that
he has a request to make. The girl's father pretends not to know what
it is, and replies that if he has anything to say the elders of the
village should be called to hear it. These assemble, and the girl's
father informs them that a stranger from another village has come to
ask something of him, and as he is ignorant of its purport, he has
asked them to do him the favour of being present. The boy's father then
opens a parable, saying that he was carried down a river in flood, and
saved himself by grasping a tree on the bank. The girl's father replies
that the roots of a riverside tree are weak, and he fears that the tree
itself would go down in the flood. The boy's father replies that in
that case he would be content to perish with the tree. Thereupon the
caste priest places a nut and some sacred rice cooked at Jagannath's
temple in the hands of the parties, who stand together facing the
company, and the girl's father says he has no objection to giving
his daughter in marriage, provided that she may not be abandoned
if she should subsequently become disfigured. The nut is broken and
distributed to all present in ratification of the agreement. After
this, other visits and a formal interchange of presents take place
prior to the marriage proper. This is performed with the customary
ceremonial of the Uriya castes. The marriage altar is made of earth
brought from outside the village by seven married women. Branches of
the mahua tree are placed on the altar, and after the conclusion of
the ceremony are thrown into a tank. The women also take a jar of water
to a tank and, emptying it, fill the jar with the tank water. They go
round to seven houses, and at each empty and refill the jar with water
from the house. The water finally brought back is used for bathing
the bride and bridegroom, and is believed to protect them from all
supernatural dangers. An image of the family totem made from powdered
rice is anointed with oil and turmeric, and worshipped daily while
the marriage is in progress. If the boy or girl is the eldest child,
the parents go through a mock marriage ceremony which the child is not
allowed to see. When the couple are brought into the marriage-shed,
they throw seven handfuls of rice mixed with mung [585] and salt
on each other. The priest ties the hands of the couple with thread
spun by virgins, and the relatives then pour water over the knot. The
bride's brother comes up and unties the knot, and gives the bridegroom
a blow on the back. This is meant to show his anger at being deprived
of his sister. He is given a piece of cloth and goes away. Presents
are made to the pair, and the women throw rice on them. They are
then taken inside the house and set to gamble with cowries. If the
bridegroom wins he promises an ornament to the bride. If she wins
she promises to serve him. The boy then asks her to sit with him on
a bench, and she at first refuses, and agrees when he promises her
other presents. Next day the bride's mother singes the cheeks of the
bridegroom with betel-leaves heated over a lamp, and throws cowdung
and rice over the couple to protect them from evil. The party takes
its departure for the bridegroom's village, and on arrival there his
sisters hold a cloth over the door of the house and will not let the
couple in till they are given a present. The bridegroom then shoots
an arrow at an image of a monkey or a deer, made of powdered rice,
which is brought back, cooked and eaten. The bride goes home in a
day or two, and the Bandapana ceremony is performed when she finally
departs to live with her husband on arrival at maturity. The Koltas
allow widow-marriage, but the husband has to pay a sum of about Rs. 100
to the caste-people, the bulk of which is expended in feasting. Divorce
may be effected in the presence of the caste committee.