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VII.—An Account of the Marriage Ceremonies of the Hindus and 
Mahommedans, as practised in the Southern Peninsula of India.—Compiled 
by the late Colonel Corin Macxenzre—Communicated by Sir A. Jounston, 
Vice President R.A.S. 
Read February 5th, 1831. 
To the Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society. 
Sir: 
I have the honour to enclose to you an account of the form of Marriage which 
prevails amongst the Hindus, and of that which prevails amongst the Mahommedans 
in the Peninsula of India. It was drawn up, as the late Colonel Mackenzie told me, 
under his direction, by several natives whom he had employed for that purpose, and 
was sent to me by him at my request, when, as Chief Justice and President of his 
Majesty’s Council on Ceylon, I was commanded by his Majesty’s Ministers to prepare 
a Hindu and a Mahommedan Code for the Hindu and Mahommedan inhabitants of that 
island. A very large body of Hindus, descended from the Hindus of the Southern 
Peninsula of India, inhabit the northern and eastern provinces; and about 90 or 100,000 
Mahommedans, who are descended from the Arabs, inhabit the sea-coasts and some parts 
of the interior of the island. The form, according to which the marriage of each of 
those two classes of inhabitants in Ceylon ought to be legally solemnized, is the same, 
subject to certain local modifications, as that according to which the marriages of the 
Hindus and Mahommedans in the Peninsula of India are solemnized. I therefore en- 
deavoured to obtain, by applying to some of the most intelligent persons, natives as 
well as Europeans, in the Peninsula of India, an accurate account of that form. 
Amongst all the different accounts which I received, the one which I have now the 
honour of sending you is that which appeared to me to be the most detailed and the 
most explicit, and that which, when submitted by me, according to the plan I inva- 
riably adopted in such cases, for the consideration of the native jurymen of the Hindu 
and Mahommedan persuasions, received the most general approbation amongst them. 
I have the honour to be, &c. 
ALEXANDER JOHNSTON. 
The Marriage Ceremonies of the Hindoos. 
Every man should use his utmost endeavours to have his daughter mar- 
ried before she is nine years of age; and when he shall have accomplished 
