[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Storia do Mogor](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci) › [Storia do Mogor (Irvine)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine) › 260 # Storia do Mogor 260: Of the Ceremonies observed by Sudras at their Weddings. Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 260 - **Language:** English ### Of the Ceremonies observed by Sudras at their Weddings. ### [260.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.260.1) Owing to the Sudra caste being divided into several branches, I cannot state the customs practised by each one in particular at their weddings. That would be to sin \[131\] against the brevity that I promised at the opening of this account. Still less need I do so because the more important castes among the Sudras, in spite of their differing in many things, are very much alike in regard to the ceremonies and practices at their marriages. Thus to distinguish between what are the more essential differences among them, I shall confine myself to a few remarks on the customs of the caste of Thieves. It is looked on by the Sudras as the lowest of their order. But the ground-work of their manners corresponds very well with their caste name; for living almost entirely in the open country and paying no heed to magistrates, they come forth nightly and rob at will, even in the towns and at the courts of kings and princes. As for the helpless traveller, he is not only robbed but murdered, or else he receives so many blows on his legs that he is almost always left for dead. ### [260.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.260.2) Among these thieves, all the conditions of a marriage having been arranged, as in the other castes, all the relations and friends assemble under the arbour where the wedding ritual is to be performed. There they encounter the brother of the bridegroom with a stick, thin but at the same time strong, held in his right hand. At this moment the bride comes out of the house carrying in her right hand a ball of cowdung and mud. When the brother-in-law sees her, he asks her with what object she is going out. To this she replies that it is to get married to him who seeks her, and to offer him what she has in her hand to eat. Forthwith she hurls the ball at the brother-in-law's nose. He, not to have the worst of it and to give her something for her dose to him, falls upon her with the stick he has in his hand, and lays on most valiantly till she seeks shelter in the house. ### [260.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.260.3) Then as a reward for the courage and dexterity with which he has comported himself in this encounter, the parents give him a present. The poor bride, having received a good beating, is taken by her parents and seated upon a mat, and the bridegroom's sister ties on the piece of gold called taly (tali), which is also among these people the essential part of marriage. After that is done, the bride and all the relations feast together, and drink most joyously. When this feast is over, they proceed with another outside the house under the arbour already mentioned. This is for the bridegroom, his relations, and invited guests. The other ceremonies that follow are almost identical with those that I have mentioned for the caste of Rajahs. ### [260.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.260.4) However, there is in this caste of the thieves, as well as in some other castes of the Sūdras and black men, a barbarous practice. When the husband is tired of his wife he gives her a straw called turumbo (turumbu). By the giving of this straw the marriage is broken, so that without any offence against the woman the man can remarry; and equally, without any offence to the man, the wife can take another husband. What is remarkable is that it is not only the husband who may repudiate his wife by that ceremony, but she, too, if she is weary of him, can force him to give her the turumbo (turumbu), the special sign by which he repudiates her and entirely dissolves the marriage. But this practice is not known anywhere in the Brahman or Rajah caste, nor in those of the shopkeepers, nor among Sudras of decent standing; for, although these may divorce their wives and marry others, the divorced wives, either in the husband's lifetime or afterwards, are not able to marry again. In all these better castes, after the husband has attached to the neck of the woman the piece of gold called a tali, the marriage becomes indissoluble. It results that the man may marry again several wives, either successively or simultaneously ; for among the Hindus there is no prohibition against having several wives. There have been kings in these days who have had as many as five thousand at once. But, as to the woman, she can marry only one husband. ### [260.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.260.5) Having set forth the way in which all the castes conduct their marriages, it remains now to speak of the blacks and pariahs, who are people of one and the same sort. These men at their weddings dress like the Brahmans do, and perform the same ceremonies, but no one can attend but those of the same caste. Now I come to funeral ceremonies for the dead ; and as all have the same practice — namely, that the wife removes her tali on the death of her husband — I shall say little, and that only briefly, about the ceremonies with which they cremate a dead body and carry out the details connected therewith. It is after these are completed that the woman must cut off her tali, and therein consists her act of widowhood ; and it is for this reason that in their language the name given to a widow means 'the woman who has cut off the tali.' --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.260](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.260) · Pramāṇa