The Colas c12.92

c12.92

We learn further that the rites of marriage might be performed even when there happened to be no one to dispose of the marriageable girl, and that the rites primarily meant for the three higher classes, might also be adopted on occasions by the lower.¹³⁰ We are told, in fine, that these rituals were ordained by the sages (*aiyar*) after falsehood and sin had made their appearance.¹³¹ This last statement distinctly recalls the legends of the origin of human marriage current among Sanskrit writers and detailed fully in the *Mahābhā-* *rata*'. As has been rightly pointed out,¹³² such 'myths are interesting but of no scientific value. . . . . When men meditated upon the marriage ceremonial and system, they would naturally infer a time when there was not only no rite, but no institution of marriage.'