Peculiar customs:
Various peculiar customs in the caste both known and unknown are observed. These have modified in the last two generations and some may even feel new to these. There are various reasons for these peculiarities. Some are,
1. Ancient Tamil vestiges (language, feeding the pulavars with milk and fruit mash, worship of demi gods,moi virunthu, etc..,).
2. Samana (Jaina) vestiges (eating before dark, white saree (vella seelai) for widows, preference for white dress, cooking meat outside the house, etc..,).
3. Kshatiriya vestiges (Gotra system, Annamar vazhipadu (hunter-warrior conflict), Kannimar vazhipadu (sapta kanyas), udankattaiyeral (sati), kuladeivam,kulaguru, benovalence,marriage customs,holding the marriage ceremony in the bride's house, giving handicapped children to Modavandis thereby eliminating weak genes, etc..,).
Marriage customs:
Gounders marry outside their Kootam(Gotram) and are renown for their elaborate threeday-marriage extravagenzas. Only some kootams give and take very high dowries, whereas today that is fading away. Their marriage rituals follow the Kshatriya pattern (where the bridegroom goes to the bride's house) and therefore necessarily involve service castes participation.
Another known fact about gounders is that they are highly conservative and do not marry anyone out of their caste and if done so they exclude that person from their families. Gounders are people who value their caste and society more than family ties. The practice of cross cousin marriages like the other south and central Indian people is also followed though lesser in these days.
