marriage of relatives

A man is forbidden to marry within his own sept or _kul_, or in that
of his mother or either of his grandmothers. He may marry his wife's
younger sister but not her elder sister. Alliances between first and
second cousins are also prohibited except that a sister's son may be
married to a brother's daughter. Such marriages are also favoured
by the Maratha Brahmans and other castes, and the suitability of
the match is expressed in the saying _Ato ghari bhasi sun_, or 'At
a sister's house her brother's daughter is a daughter-in-law.' The
sister claims it as a right and not unfrequently there are quarrels
if the brother decides to give his daughter to somebody else, while
the general feeling is so strongly in favour of these marriages that
the caste committee sometimes imposes a fine on fathers who wish to
break through the rule. The fact that in this single case the marriage
of near relatives is not only permitted but considered almost as an
obligation, while in all other instances it is strictly prohibited,
probably points to the conclusion that the custom is a survival of the
matriarchate, when a brother's property would pass to his sister's
son. Under such a law of inheritance he would naturally desire that
his heir should be united to his own daughter, and this union might
gradually become customary and at length almost obligatory. The
custom in this case may survive when the reasons which justified it
have entirely vanished. And while formerly it was the brother who
would have had reason to desire the match for his daughter, it is now
the sister who insists on it for her son, the explanation being that
among the Kunbis as with other agricultural castes, to whom a wife's
labour is a valuable asset, girls are expensive and a considerable
price has to be paid for a bride.

7. Betrothal and marriage

Girls are usually married between the ages of five and eleven and boys
between ten and twenty. The Kunbis still think it a mark of social
distinction to have their daughters married as young as possible. The
recognised bride-price is about twenty rupees, but much larger sums are
often paid. The boy's father goes in search of a girl to be married
to his son, and when the bride-price has been settled and the match
arranged the ceremony of Mangni or betrothal takes place. In the first
place the boy's father proceeds to his future daughter-in-law's house,
where he washes her feet, smears her forehe