"It was a ghastly sight," officer Ranjit Singh said, describing the father sitting in the station's waiting room holding the head in one hand and the sword in the other. "Oghad admitted immediately that he killed his daughter because she had earned a bad name for the family."

Police described Kanwar's recent life as difficult and unorthodox for the traditional community of about 1,000 just outside the Rajasthani tourist town of Udaipur.

She left her husband from an arranged marriage two years ago and moved back home to live with her parents. She recently began seeing several men which "disgusted" her father, deputy police superintendent Umesh Ojha said.

"Oghad said he was fed up with the lifestyle of his daughter," Ojha said.

When Manju eloped with one man two weeks ago, her father forced her to return on Sunday and killed her.

Rapidly modernizing India faces increasing social clashes as youths resist traditions like arranged marriage or limits on women venturing outside their parents' or husbands' homes.