A weeklong ceremony known as Saurath Sabha to negotiate marriages of Maithil Brahmins began on Wednesday.

Despite the tradition dating back to 1326, the concepts of the system are more modern than many contemporary marriages, as there is no practice of dowry being exchanged.

The sabha is fighting for its existence with neither the government nor any cultural organisation coming forward to help glorify the custom.

Panjikar (marriage registrar) Harimohan Mishra said: “We have registers to record dynasty details of Maithil Brahmins. We follow the registers to verify caste and sub-caste for negotiations. There should not be any blood relation between the bride’s mother’s five generations and her father’s seven generations with the groom’s clan. The bride and groom should be from the same sub-caste.”

“We get Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 for each negotiation depending upon the wishes of the families to check the clan records,” he added.

Experts believe the sabha is better than matrimonial websites. “Matrimony portals do not have a dynasty register,” said sociologist Hetukar Jha.