The mokhthodvaiol has no rights over any children who might be supposed to be his; they are regarded as the children of the regular marriage. This would be the case [[527]]even if the husband were dead or separated from his wife. If a Teivali man took a Tarthar widow as sedvaitazmokh, and a child were born, the child would belong to the Tartharol, and would be regarded as the son of the dead husband of the woman, and would belong to his clan. The child might live with the mokhthodvaiol, and be spoken of ordinarily as the child of this man, but yet for all social and legal purposes, the child would be a member of its mother’s husband’s clan. The dead husband is regarded as the father because it was he who last performed the pursütpimi ceremony.
There are two forms of the mokhthoditi union. In one the woman lives with the man just as if she were his real wife, almost the only difference being that any children would be legally the children of the legal husband of the woman or of some man of her division called upon to perform the pursütpimi ceremony. In the other and more usual form the man visits the woman at the house of her husband.
Owing to the restriction on the visits of Teivali women to Tarthar villages, there is a difference in the nature of the mokhthoditi union in the two divisions. A Teivali mokhthodvaiol may take his wife to live with him at one of the Teivali villages, but in those cases in which Tarthar men live permanently with Teivali women, the mokhthodvaiol must live at the woman’s village. There are two examples of this practice at the present time in which Tarthar men live altogether at Teivali villages.
When a man wishes to have a given woman as his sedvaitazmokh he goes to the husband or husbands of the woman and asks for his or their consent. As a sample of the kind of negotiations which ensue, I will give a definite instance. A Tarthar man wished to become mokhthodvaiol to the wife of two Teivali brothers. He went to them and asked for their consent, which they gave, but said they should like to have the agreement confirmed by a third party (nedrvol), and they settled on a nedrvol to whom all went. The nedrvol asked each if he consented to the arrangement, and it was decided that the Tarthar man should give a putkuli worth three rupees annually to the woman’s husbands, and the former became mokhthodvaiol to the woman on that day. [[528]]
A few days later the two husbands and the mokhthodvaiol went to the woman’s father and brothers (called collectively paiol), and the mokhthodvaiol promised that he would give the woman either a keivali (necklace) or a sin (gold earrings), each worth about thirty rupees. [A poorer man might only give a pulthi (bracelet), worth about twelve rupees]. He also promised that he would give a three-year-old buffalo to the son of the woman, this being called mokh ir kwadrti, i.e., “son buffalo he gives.” After making these promises, the mokhthodvaiol performed the salutation of kalmelpudithti to all the paiol, i.e., he bowed down before each, and placed his head beneath their feet.
As we have seen earlier, not only are the relatives of the sedvaitazmokh called paiol, the term in use for the relatives of a real wife, but the father of the woman is called mun and her mother mumi, names which are also terms of blood-relationship.
When a man or woman dies, the mokhthodvaiol of the woman and the sedvaitazmokh of the man have definitely assigned duties at the funeral ceremonies. Each wears a ring on the ring finger of the left hand and has to put various things with the left hand into the pocket of the putkuli of the dead person.[12]
The mokhthoditi institution was first described by Ward in 1821,[13] the man being called by Ward the coombhal (the kumbliol, cloak or blanket man). This is the Badaga name, and it has usually been adopted by those who have since referred to the institution.
The custom is said to have originated with the god Kulinkars, who was the mokhthodvaiol of the goddess Nòtirzi, but I could obtain no details of the way in which the custom is supposed to have arisen.
The ceremonial connected with the process of becoming a mokhthodvaiol is very much like that of the real marriage. A garment is given or promised and the salutation of kalmelpudithti is paid to the woman’s relatives. The chief difference is that the gifts are more numerous [[529]]and expensive for the mokhthodvaiol than for the husband. Further, in some cases the sedvaitazmokh of a Teivali man may live with him exactly in the same way as a wife. Except for the prohibition against Teivali women living at Tarthar villages, and the important difference in the mode of descent of the children there seems to be little essential difference in some cases between the mokhthoditi union and marriage. In describing the institution, one of my informants laid great stress on the disability of a man of one division to perform the pursütpimi ceremony for a woman of the other division and treated this as the essential point of difference. He seemed to regard this ceremonial disability as primary and the other differences as the secondary results, but I do not know how far this is the general Toda view.