In Berar, most Hindu women are allowed to make a second marriage, but a widow is married there by the pat' form, an inferior ceremony. The groom is not married to the woman, but to tho swallow-wort plant, or to a ring, or a pitcher. The twigs of five plants are used,—the mango, the shtuni, jambul, apata, and swallow-wort. The trees are worshipped, a twig is cut from each ; in tho bride's house they are placed in an earthen pot, around the mouth of which is bound a strip of yellow cloth torn from a woman's bodice. They are subsequently worshipped at the Deokundi ceremony.
Plant Marriage.—In Clintia Nagpur amongst agriculturists, and in Singhbum amongst all classes of Kol, girls have a fixed price, sometimes up to 40 head of cattle ; and girls often long remain unmarried, even to be old maids. When such are married, the bride clasps a mahwa tree, the groom a mango tree, and at the close of the ceremonies the bridesmaids pour a jar of water over the heads of each of the couple, who then retire to change their wet clothes. The next morning the bridesmaids burst into the nuptial chamber and bring forth the bride and groom.
The marrying with plants is not restricted to human beings. Banotsarg is the Hindu ceremony of marrying a newly-planted•orchard to its neigh-. bonring well, without which it would be held improper to partake of the fruit. Brikhotsarg is the marriage ceremony performed by Hindus when liberating a bull. Hindus, in sickness, at marriages and other ceremonial occasions, loose a bull, which thenceforward rambles at will without an owner. These haunt the market-places and landing-places, and in large towns such as Benares, the Ranh, Sanrh, and Sirhi or widow's bulls are numerous. The bulls are in good condition, are often in the way, but rarely mischievous, though very cunning.
The Matsya Purana and other books denounce marriage to a third wife under the penalty of early death, but incurrence of the penalty is evaded by the man himself being married to a plant. On a day when the sun is in the lunar asterism called Basta, the resolve to marry is expressed, the manes of the deceased ancestors worshipped, and then the priest has to worship the Rui plant, a kind of swallow-wort which is considered to represent the sun in union with his wife Chhaya (shadow), raw sugar and rice offered, and the sun is thus invoked : 0 thou who dwellest in the three worlds, do thou, along with thy wife Chhaya, obviate the dangers that attend a third marriage, and confer on me felicity.! In the
further ceremony, the 'man, placing his hand on the hush, says, Mercifully preserve me now that thou art conic to be my wife ; ' and after other ceremonies, a veil is drawn'between the parties, a benediction given, and the veil removed.
Seasonal.—With the Kadava Kunbi of Gujerat, an interval of twelve years elapses between one marriage season and another. After the lapse of nine years from one marriage season, the Kadava patels of Ahmadabad and Unjha, and the priests or Pnjari of the goddess Umia Devi, the tutelary goddess of the Kadava Kunbi, whose temple is at Unjha in the Kadi division of Baroda, consult the goddess as to the marriage season. Two bits of paper, one containing the word yes, and another the word no, are thrown before the goddess, and a virgin is asked to take up one of them. If the bit selected by the virgin contains the word yes, it is construed into a per mission on the part of the goddess for celebration of marriages that season. If, on the other hand, the bit containing the word no is taken up by the virgin, it is construed as a prohibition, in which case the bits of paper are again thrown before the goddess after a lapse of two years. If at that time also the bit taken up contains no, the experiment is tried again and again until the bit with yes is obtained.
The Kadava Kunbi are also very particular as to their intermarriages. But when a suitable match for a girl cannot be found, she is married to a bunch of flowers, which are afterwards thrown into a well. She is then a widow, and can be married with the natra rites. Or she is married to a married man, on the agreement that he divorce, her on completion of the ceremony, and she can then, as a divorced woman, be re married by the natra ceremony.
With non-Aryan aborigines, both parties are over 15 or 16 years old. The Kurumbar, for instance, marry after a. girl is grown up, as also do the Betta Kurumba, the Teling Balja Vadu, the Devanga, Jadar, and Kaika]ar weavers, also • the Palli race of the Tamil-speaking people, also the Hala-Paik and the Bilwara of Cauara ; also the Kansa Wakkala, the Upara or builders, the Bedar, the Lala Gundara, and the Soligara. A literary race called Kayastha, or Kayat, or Kayasth, who claim origin from a deified mortal called Chatrgoputr, also many of the Pariah tribes, allow their girls to grow up and remain in their father's house without any feeling of impropriety being associated with the practice.