Vol. X. No. 9.] Marriage Customs of the Cochin Castes. 307 

 [N.S.] 



the formal beginning of the ceremony; (5) a feast during the 

 previous night (athazham); (6) the worship of the Sun on the 

 next morning; (7) tali-tying for each girl by a separate 

 member of the caste, or by a Thirumalpad for a number of 

 girls, or by the mother before the deity in the nearest temple 

 or on the onam day in front of the clay image Mahadevar: 

 (8) certain formalities indicative of the wife's duties, viz., 

 giving the bridegroom betel to chew, giving him water to 

 wash his feet; (9) the feast during the next three days; (10) 

 their bath on the fourth day, worship of the deity in the 

 temple close by; {11) their eating together from the same 

 dish, and (12) their formal separation. 



Some are of opinion that this is a sacrament similar to 

 that which prevails among the Brahmans, but looking on 

 this form of marriage now in vogue, it is not regarded as con- 

 stituting a religious ceremony, or a samskara or sacrament in 

 the Hindu or° European sense of the word. " There is no 

 officiating priest in attendance, there is no formula to be 

 repeated, there is no vedic, puranic or religious chant or 



exhortation and there is no formal benediction. The essen- 



tial elements of a Brahmanical marriage, viz., taking the 

 bride bv the hand, or Panigrahanam , the walking of seven 

 steps or Saptapati, and the homam or sacrifice to the fire, 

 are not to be found among its details. Therefore the marriage 

 customs among Marumakkalhayam Hindus have no connec- 

 tion with their religious observances, such as exists under the 

 ordinary Hindu law, though several of the details bear a 

 resemblance to a portion of the marriage ritual of the 



Nambuthiris." ' 



The second or the real marriage of the Nayar girls is the 

 Sambandham (the customary union of man and woman) which 

 is the principal word denoting the conjugal relations among 

 the Nayars. The customs connected with it vary in different 

 places, but the main features are the same all over. The 

 best form of Sambandham is that between the daughter of 

 a maternal uncle and his nephew ; but, as a rule, the girls are 

 grown up, and they enjoy very much freedom in the choice 

 of their husbands than other classes of people. As in the 

 tali-txing ceremony the consent of the Karnavar. parents 

 and maternal uncle of the contracting parties, the selection 

 of an auspicious day in consultation with the village astro- 

 loger, the departure of the bridegroom with a few of the 

 castemen of the village and friends to the house of the bride- 

 elect, the perusal of the Ramaynam or other sacred book refer- 

 ring to marriage and the happy conjugal life attending it, 

 a sumptuous dinner in the house of the bride, the presen- 

 tation of cloth to the bride at the auspicious hour, and the 



L Malabar Marriase Commission Report , page 87 



