Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/124

MUKKUVAN the bride is brought to the pandal. Two persons are selected as representatives of the bridegroom and bride, and the representative of the former gives thirty-nine vellis to the representative of the latter. Some sweetened water is given to the bridegroom's relations. A woman who has been married according to the kōdi-udukkal rite ties a new cloth round the waist of the bride, after asking her if she is willing to marry the brideogroom, and obtaining the consent of those assembled. Sometimes a necklace, composed of twenty-one gold coins, is also tied on the bride's neck. At night, the bridal couple take their departure for the home of the bridegroom. In South Canara, the ceremonial is spread over three days, and varies from the above in some points of detail. The bridegroom goes in procession to the bride's house, accompanied by a Sangāyi or Mūnan (best or third man) belonging to a sept other than that of the bridal couple. The bride is seated in a room, with a lamp and a tray containing betel leaves, areca nuts, and flowers. The Sangāyi takes a female cloth in which some money is tied, and throws it on a rope within the room. On the third day, the bride puts on this cloth, and, seated within the pandal, receives presents. The vīttil-kūdal marriage rite is completed in a single day. The bridegroom comes to the home of the bride, and goes into her room, conducted thither by two men belonging to the septs of the contracting couple. The newly-married couple may not leave the bride's house until the seventh day after the marriage ceremony, and the wife is not obliged to live at her husband's house.

There is yet another form of alliance called vechchirukkal, which is an informal union with the consent of the parents and the Arayans. It is recorded, in the