they want money, for a sum equal to fifty rupees. In Nellore and other districts, they all purchase their wives, the price varying from thirty to seventy rupees, but money rarely passes on such occasions, the consideration being paid in asses or cattle." In a recent case in the Madras High Court, a Korava stated that he had sold one of his wives for twenty-one rupees.*[1] It is stated by Dr. Pope that the Koravas do not " scruple to pawn their wives for debt. If the wife who is in pledge dies a natural death, the debt is discharged. If she should die from hard usage, the creditor must not only cancel the debt, but must defray the expenses of a second marriage for his debtor. If the woman lives till the debt is discharged, and if she has children by the creditor, the boys remain with him, the girls go back with her to her husband." The conditions of the country suggest a reason for the pawning of wives. A wife would be pawned in times of stress, and redeemed after seasons of plenty. The man who can afford to accept her in pledge in a time of famine would, in periods of plenty, require men for agricultural purposes. He, therefore, retains the male issue, who in time will be useful to him. Some years ago, some Koravas were convicted of stealing the despatch box of the Collector of a certain district from his tent. It came out, in the course of the trial, that the head of the gang had taken the money contained therein as his share, and with it acquired a wife. The Collector humorously claimed that the woman, having been obtained with his money, was, according to a section of the Criminal Procedure Code, his property.
A woman who marries seven men successively one after the other, either after the death of her husbands or
- ↑ * Madras Census Report, 1901.
