Excerpt from Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Vol. 7: T to Z

Téli. - The tali, Bishop Caldwell writes? Is the Hindu sign of marriage, answering to the ring of European Christendom. I have known a clergyman refuse to perform a marriage with a tali, and insist upon a ring being used instead. A little consideration will show that the scrupulous conscience can find no rest for itself even in the ring for, if the ring is more Christian than the tali, it is only because its use among Christians is more ancient. Every one knows that the ring has a Pagan origin, and that, for this reason, it is rejected by Quakers. The custom, Wagner informs us, 'r of wearing the wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand had unquestionably a Pagan origin. Both the Greeks and the Romans called the fourth left-hand finger the medicated finger, and used it to stir up mixtures and potions, out of the belief that it contained a vein, which communicated directly with the heart, and therefore nothing noxious could come in contact with it, without giving instant warning to that vital organ.

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