Divorce is not permitted on any ground, and, in ancient days, widow remarriage was forbidden. There is a legend that a woman of this caste, who was a friend of the daughter of a certain Vadakkumkur Rājah, was so aggrieved at the news of her newly married husband's death that, at her intercession, the Rājah issued a proclamation permitting the remarriage of widows. If no husband has been found for a girl before she reaches puberty, certain propitiatory rites have to be performed, at which one of her female relations represents her. On the fourth day of the marriage ceremony, the bride and bridegroom, before they bathe, rub each other's bodies with oil, and, going to a large caldron containing water, throw a gold and silver ring into it, and pick them out three times. Inheritance of both sections is from father to son (makkathāyam). A sambandham alliance does not confer any rite of inheritance.
The names of both sections are such as are unknown among Nāyars, e.g., Sivalingam, Arunāchalam, Chidambaram, Arumukham. The Tenkanchis are considered to be higher in the social scale than the Kumbakōnam section, as they observe only twelve days' death pollution, whereas the latter are under pollution for sixteen days. The Tenkanchis may enter the temple, and, like Nāyars, stand on the left side of the inner shrine, whereas the Kumbakōnam Vellālas may proceed only as far as the balikkalpura, or out-house of the temple, and not enter the nalambalam. Again, butter-milk is freely received by Brāhmans from the Tenkanchis, but not from members of the Kumbakōnam section. While Pāndi Vellālas will not receive food from the Tenkanchis, or give their daughters in marriage to them, the latter will not intermarry with the Nānchinād Vellālas.
