3. Marriage
Marriage is adult, and the bride and bridegroom are usually about the same age; but girls are scarce in the caste, and betrothals are usually effected at an early age, so that the fathers of boys may obtain brides for their sons. A contract of betrothal, once made, cannot be broken without incurring social disgrace, and compensation in money is also exacted. A small bride-price of three or four rupees and a piece of cloth is payable to the girl’s father. As in the case of some other Uriya castes the proposal for a marriage is couched in poetic phraseology, the Turi bridegroom’s ambassador announcing his business with the phrase: ‘I hear that a sweet-scented flower has blossomed in your house and I have come to gather it’; to which the bride’s father, if the match be acceptable, replies: ‘You may take away my flower if you will not throw it away when its sweet scent has gone.’ The girl then appears, and the boy’s father gives her a piece of cloth and throws a little liquor over her feet. He then takes her on his lap and gives her an anna to buy a ring for herself, and sometimes kisses her and says, ‘You will preserve my lineage.’ He washes the feet of her relatives, and the contract of betrothal is thus completed, and its violation by either party is a serious matter. The wedding is performed according to the ritual commonly practised by the Uriya castes. The binding portion of it consists in the perambulation of the sacred pole five or seven times. After each circle the bridegroom takes hold of the bride’s toe and makes her kick away a small heap of rice on which a nut and a pice coin are placed. After this a cloth is held over the couple and each rubs vermilion on the other’s forehead. At this moment the bride’s brother appears, and gives the bridegroom a blow on the back. This is probably in token of his wrath at being deprived of his sister. A meal of rice and fowls is set before the bridegroom, but he feigns displeasure, and refuses to eat them. The bride’s parents then present him with a pickaxe and a crooked knife, saying that these are the implements of their trade, and will suffice him for a livelihood. The bridegroom, however, continues obdurate until they promise him a cow or a bullock, when he consents to eat. The bride’s family usually spend some twenty or more rupees on her wedding, and the bridegroom’s family about fifty rupees. A widow is expected to marry her Dewar or deceased husband’s younger brother, and if she takes somebody else he must repay to the Dewar the expenditure incurred by the latter’s family on her first marriage. Divorce is permitted for misconduct on the part of the wife or for incompatibility of temper.