After the wedding, the new bride leaves her old ties behind and formally becomes a member of the husband's kin group and caste, serving the new family's gods. The couple resides in the house of the husband's parents for the first few years; relations with her own family may be severed.

The wife owns all her clothes, jewelry, household utensils, pigs, and chickens, and often has her own income from the sale of market goods. Inheritance is invariably passed along the male line; the man owns the house, the rice fields, the cattle, and his tools, and is in charge of handling the money.

Polygamy amongst the aristocracy was once widespread but is now quite rare. At one time the wife of a prince could hold varying levels of status in a 'puri', depending upon her caste and whether she ranked as first, second, third, or fourth wife. The prince usually did not even appear at his wedding ceremony with a low-caste bride; she was ceremonially married to his 'kris', or a tree.

A man may be awarded a divorce by the village authorities if his wife is lazy, quarrelsome, adulterous, or sterile, while a woman may divorce her husband by simply leaving his home if he is cruel, under an occult power, or impotent