Fines inflicted by the Bant caste council are, I am informed, spent in the celebration of a temple festival. In former days, those found guilty by the council were beaten with tamarind switches, made to stand exposed to the sun, or big red ants were thrown over their bodies. Sometimes, to establish the innocence of an accused person, he had to take a piece of red-hot iron (axe, etc.) in his hand, and give it to his accuser.

At a puberty ceremony among some Bants the girl sits in the courtyard of her house on five unhusked cocoanuts covered with the bamboo cylinder which is used for storing paddy. Women place four pots filled with water, and containing betel leaves and nuts, round the girl, and empty the contents over her head. She is then secluded in an outhouse. The women are entertained with a feast, which must include fowl and fish curry. The cocoanuts are given to a washerwoman. On the fourth day, the girl is bathed, and received back at the house. Beaten rice, and rice flour mixed with jaggery (crude sugar) are served out to those assembled. The girl is kept gōsha (secluded) for a time, and fed up with generous diet.

Under the aliya santāna system of inheritance, the High Court has ruled that there is no marriage within the meaning of the Penal Code. But, though divorce and remarriage are permitted to women, there are formal rules and ceremonies observed in connection with them, and amongst the well-to-do classes divorce is not looked upon as respectable, and is not frequent. The fictitious marriage prevailing amongst the Nāyars is unknown among the Bants, and a wife also usually leaves the family house, and resides at her husband’s, unless she occupies so senior a position in her own family as to make it desirable that she should live on the family estate.

The Bants are divided into a number of balis (exogamous septs), which are traced in the female line, i.e., a boy belongs to his mother’s, not to his father’s bali. Children belonging to the same bali cannot marry, and the prohibition extends to certain allied (koodu) balis. Moreover, a man cannot marry his father’s brother’s daughter, though she belongs to a different bali. In a memorandum by Mr. M. Mundappa Bangera,[36] it is stated that “bali in aliya santāna families corresponds to gōtra of the Brāhmins governed by Hindu law, but differs in that it is derived from the mother’s side, whereas gōtra is always derived from the father’s side. A marriage between a boy and girl belonging to the same bali is considered incestuous, as falling within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. It is not at all difficult to find out the bali to which a man or woman belongs, as one can scarcely be found who does not know one’s own bali by rote. And the heads of caste, who preside at every wedding party, and who are also consulted by the elders of the boy or girl before an alliance is formed, are such experts in these matters that they decide at once without reference to any books or rules whether intermarriages between persons brought before them can be lawfully performed or not.” As examples of balis among the Bants, the following may be cited:—

Infant marriage is not prohibited, but is not common, and both men and girls are usually married after they have reached maturity. There are two forms of marriage, one called kai dhāre for marriages between virgins and bachelors, the other called budu dhāre for the marriage of widows. After a match has been arranged, the formal betrothal, called ponnapāthera or nischaya tambula, takes place. The bridegroom’s relatives and friends proceed in a body on the appointed day to the bride’s house, and are there entertained at a grand dinner, to which the bride’s relatives and friends are also bidden. Subsequently the karnavans (heads) of the two families formally engage to perform the marriage, and plates of betel leaves and areca nuts are exchanged, and the betel and nuts partaken of by the two parties. The actual marriage ceremony is performed at the house of the bride or bridegroom, as may be most convenient. The proceedings commence with the bridegroom seating himself in the marriage pandal, a booth or canopy specially erected for the occasion. He is there shaved by the village barber, and then retires and bathes. This done, both he and the bride are conducted to the pandal by their relations, or sometimes by the village headman. They walk thrice round the seat, and then sit down side by side. The essential and binding part of the ceremony, called dhāre, then takes place. The right hand of the bride being placed over the right hand of the bridegroom, a silver vessel (dhāre gindi) filled with water, with a cocoanut over the mouth and the flower of the areca palm on the cocoanut, is placed on the joined hands. The parents, the managers of the two families, and the village headmen all touch the vessel, which, with the hands of the bridal pair, is moved up and down three times. In certain families the water is poured from the vessel into the united hands of the couple, and this betokens the gift of the bride. This form of gift by pouring water was formerly common, and was not confined to the gift of a bride. It still survives in the marriage ceremonies of various castes, and the name of the Bant ceremony shows that it must once have been universal among them. The bride and bridegroom then receive the congratulations of the guests, who express a hope that the happy couple may become the parents of twelve sons and twelve daughters. An empty plate, and another containing rice, are next placed before the pair, and their friends sprinkle them with rice from the one, and place a small gift, generally four annas, in the other. The bridegroom then makes a gift to the bride. This is called sirdachi, and varies in amount according to the position of the parties. This must be returned to the husband, if his wife leaves him, or if she is divorced for misconduct. The bride is then taken back in procession to her home. A few days later she is again taken to the bridegroom’s house, and must serve her husband with food. He makes another money present to her, and after that the marriage is consummated.

According to another account of the marriage ceremony among some Bants, the barber shaves the bridegroom’s face, using cow’s milk instead of water, and touches the bride’s forehead with razor. The bride and bridegroom bathe, and dress up in new clothes. A plank covered with a newly-washed cloth supplied by a washerman, a tray containing raw rice, a lighted lamp, betel leaves and areca nuts, etc., are placed in the pandal. A girl carries a tray on which are placed a lighted lamp, a measure full of raw rice, and betel. She is followed by the bridegroom conducted by her brother, and the bride, led by the bridegroom’s sister. They enter the pandal and, after going round the articles contained therein five times, sit down on the plank. An elderly woman, belonging to the family of the caste headman, brings a tray containing rice, and places it in front of the couple, over whom she sprinkles a little of the rice. The assembled men and women then place presents of money on the tray, and sprinkle rice over the couple. The right hand of the bride is held by the headman, and her uncle, and laid in that of the bridegroom. A cocoanut is placed over the mouth of a vessel, which is decorated with mango leaves and flowers of the areca palm. The headman and male relations of the bride place this vessel thrice in the hands of the bridal couple. The vessel is subsequently emptied at the foot of a cocoanut tree.

The foregoing account shows that the Bant marriage is a good deal more than concubinage. It is indeed as formal a marriage as is to be found among any people in the world, and the freedom of divorce which is allowed cannot deprive it of its essential character. Widows are married with much less formality. The ceremony consists simply of joining the hands of the couple, but, strange to say, a screen is placed between them. All widows are allowed to marry again, but it is, as a rule, only the young women who actually do so. If a widow becomes pregnant, she must marry or suffer loss of caste.

The Bants all burn their dead, except in the case of children under seven, and those who have died of leprosy or of epidemic disease such as cholera or small-pox. The funeral pile must consist at least partly of mango wood. On the ninth, eleventh or thirteenth day, people are fed in large numbers, but the Jains now substitute for this a distribution of cocoanuts on the third, fifth, seventh, or ninth day. Once a year—generally in October—a ceremony called agelū is performed for the propitiation of ancestors.