Vol. X, No. 9.] Marriage Customs of the Cochin Castes. 315 

 [N.S.] 



infirmity. According to the laws of Manu, a wife who drinks 

 a spirituous liquor, is of bad conduct, rebellious, mischievous, or 

 wasteful, may at any time be superseded in the eighth year, 

 one whose children all die in the tenth, who bears only 

 daughters in the eleventh ; who is quarrelsome without delay. 

 Divorces are common among the lower castes, but they are 

 rarely practised among higher classes of Sudras. 1 



Among the Brahmans cases of adultery are condemned. 

 The woman and her paramours are generally outcasted. 2 

 Among the Sudras and other castes, when a woman is charged 

 with criminal intimacy with a member of the lower caste, 

 she is placed under a ban and is eventually outcasted ; but, when 

 it is with a member of her own caste the woman is severely 

 punished, and prevented from resorting to the same act. 

 The adulterer is either heavily fined or excommunicated. 

 In the absence of serious reasons, the Mussalman law justifies 

 divorce in the eye of religion or the law. If he abandon his 

 wife or put her away from simple caprice, he draws down 

 upon himself the divine anger, for the curse of God rests on 

 him who repudiates his wife capriciously. Practically, how- 

 ever, a Muhammadan may, without assigning any reason, say, 

 " Thou art divorced," and she must return to her parents or 

 friends. 



Among the Christians, the indissoluable nature of marri- 

 age was early vindicated by many fathers in accordance with 

 the injunction, € What God hath joined together, let not man 

 put asunder/ came into full force by degrees. 



Conclusion. — From the foregoing account of the matri- 

 monial customs prevailing among the various Cochin and 

 other foreign indigenous castes, it may be seen that a few 

 which necessitate social reform are: (1) the intermarriage 

 between the various sections or subdivisions of the same caste 

 or community ; (2) the abnormally enhanced price which the 

 bride's parents among the Brahmans and other higher castes 

 have to pay to secure suitable husbands for their daughters ; 

 (3) the heavy expenses for feast and other items in the 

 ceremony which they are put to. Reforms on the lines of 

 the Walterkrit Rajaputra Hithakarini Sabha of Rajaputana 

 is more desirable. Unless the rich and other gentlemen of 

 light and leading set the example by following the old 

 shastraic ideals and put an end to the recently developed 

 customs above referred to, and societies be also organized 

 in all important centres, to condemn the practice, and thereby 

 to elevate the moral tone of the people in these matters, worse 

 evils may be anticipated, i.e., only girls whom their parents 

 can afford to marry can survive. 



1 Code of Manu, chap, ix, pages 80-81. 



2 Cochin Tribes and Castes, vol. ii, pages 210-214 



