4. Widow-marriage or divorce.
The remarriage of widows is permitted, and the ceremony consists simply in tying a knot in the clothes of the couple; in Ahmadābād all they need do is to sit on the ground while the bridegroom’s father knocks their heads together.[12] Divorce is allowed for a wife’s misconduct, and if she marries her fellow delinquent he must repay to the husband the expenses incurred by him on his wedding. Otherwise the caste committee may inflict a fine of Rs. 100 on him and put him out of caste for twelve years in default of payment, and order one side of his moustache to be shaved. In Gujarāt a married woman who has an intrigue with another man is called savāsan, and it is said that a practice exists, or did exist, for her lover to pay her husband a price for the woman and marry her, though it is held neither respectable nor safe.[13] In Ahmadābād, if one Koli runs away with another’s wife, leaving his own wife behind him, the caste committee sometimes order the offender’s relatives to supply the bereaved husband with a fresh wife. They produce one or more women, and he selects one and is quite content with her.[14]