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The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s1: The Evolution of Marriage

The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s1

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English

The Evolution of Marriage

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Being of hoary antiquity Hindu literature has naturally preserved some traces of promiscuity existing in prehistoric times. The Mahābhārata informs us that in the land of the Uttarakurus¹ and in the city of Māhishmatī² the institution of marriage did not exist. It may be, however, added that Uttarakuru is very probably a mythical country, not existing on terrestrial globe, and that the evidence about Māhishmatī consists of an observation made by its Pāṇḍava conqueror Sahadeva during his short stay there in the course of a hurricane military campaign. It may not be worth more than the proverbial traveller’s tale. According to the Great Epic it was the sage Śvetaketu who decreed that promiscuity should be supplanted by regular marriage¹. Whether the state of promiscuity, here referred to as existing in prehistoric times, is a mere possibility intellectually conceived, or whether it actually did exist in some sections of society in certain parts of the country, we do not know. There are a few passages in the epic showing that a state of promiscuity may not have been an impossibility at an early period. They disclose an astounding laxity in sexual morality. It must, however, be noted that most of these passages have a context and are not to be taken at their face value. Thus Śarmiṣṭhā observes that there is no difference between one's own husband and the husband of a friend¹; but we must note that this is an argument advanced by a woman driven into desperation by the unnatural punishment of eternal maidenhood inflicted upon her. When eventually king Yayāti yields to Śarmishṭhā's importunities and is taken to task by Śukra, his father-in-law, he observes that duty and chivalry rendered it necessary for him to comply with Śarmishṭhā's request². The astounding proposition here advanced by him is, however, nothing but an untenable defence put forward by an accused who is at a loss to know how to defend himself. The traces of promiscuity that we get in the epic have to be referred to pre-Vedic times; for we find the institution of marriage well established in the Ṛigveda.

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¹ **यत्र नार्यः कामचारा भवन्ति ।** XII, 102, 26 (B).

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² **स्वैरिण्यस्तत्र नार्यो हि यथेष्टं विचरन्त्युत ।** II, 32, 40.

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¹ > अनाहताः किल पुरा स्त्रिय आसन्वरानने । कामाचारविहारिण्यः स्वतंत्राश्चारुहासिनि ॥ ४ ॥ तासां व्युच्चरमाणानां कौमारात्सुभगे पतीन् । नाधर्मोऽभूद्वरारोहे स हि धर्मः पुराऽभवत् ॥ ५ ॥ प्रमाणदृष्टो धर्मोऽयं पूज्यते च महर्षिभिः । उत्तरेषु च रम्भोरु कुरुष्वद्यापि दृश्यते ॥ स्त्रीणामनुग्रहकरः स हि धर्मः सनातनः ॥ ७ ॥ अस्मिंस्तु लोके न चिरान्मर्यादेयं शुचिस्मिते ॥ स्थापिता येन यस्माच्च तन्मे विस्तरतः शृणु । बभूवोद्दालको नाम महर्षिरिति नः श्रुतम् ॥ ९ ॥ श्वेतकेतुरिति ख्यातः पुत्रस्तस्याभवन्मुनिः । मर्यादेयं कृता तेन धर्म्या वै श्वेतकेतुना ॥ १२ ॥ तदा प्रभृति मर्यादा स्थितेयमिति नः श्रुतम् । व्युच्चरन्त्याः पतिं नार्या अद्यप्रभृति पातकम् ॥ ४४ ॥ भ्रूणहत्यासमं घोरं भविष्यत्यसुखावहम् । भार्या तथा व्युच्चरतः कौमारब्रह्मचारिणीम् ॥ पतिव्रतामेतदेव भविता पातकं भुवि ॥ ४७ ॥ *Mbh.* I, 128.

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¹ **समावेतौ मतौ राजन् पतिः सख्याश्च यः पतिः ॥** *Ibid*, I, 76, 28.

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² **ऋतुं वै याचमानाया न ददाति पुमानृतुम् ।** **भ्रूणहेत्युच्यते ब्रह्मन्, स इह ब्रह्मवादिभिः ॥** *Ibid*, I. 77,54.

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Not only was marriage well established in the Vedic age, but it was also regarded as a social and and religious duty and necessity. This was the case even in the Indo-Iranian period. According to the Avesta oblations offered unto gods or ancestors by a maiden or a bachelor are unacceptable to them (*Ashi Yashta*, c, X,54). A Vedic passage says that a person, who is unmarried, is unholy³. Marriage opened a new period of holy life which was to be led at the altar of truth and duty⁴. The couple was to take particular care in properly performing the rituals connected with the Gārhapatya fire kindled at the time of their marriage. Prescribed sacrifices to gods and manes were to be regularly offered. And finally the couple was to perpetuate the race by raising and training a numerous progeny, so that oblations may for ever continue to be offered to gods and ancestors. A later age, which had developed the system of the four Āśramas, pointed out that the whole society depends upon the houeseholder for its maintenance; the Brahmachārī, the Vānaprastha and the Saṁnyasī can hardly exist without active help from a zealous and conscientious class of householders. The householder is as necessary for society as the breath is for the body¹.

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³ **अयज्ञियो वा एष योऽपत्नीकः ।** *T. Br.*, II, 2, 2, 6.

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⁴ **ऋतस्य योनौ सुकृतस्य लोके ।** *R. V.*, X, 85, 24.

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¹ यथा वायुं समाश्रित्य वर्तन्ते सर्वजन्तवः । तथा गृहस्थमाश्रित्य वर्तन्ते सर्व आश्रमाः ॥ *Manu*, III, 77.

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Such being the views of society about marriage since very early times, it was naturally regarded as normally necessary and desirable for all. According to the Avesta bachelors are spiritually inferior to married men, and among the latter those without children to those who have them (*Fargard IV*, 130-3). The Vedic age shares the same views. It must be, however, observed that down to about 500 B. C., though marriage was regarded as highly desirable for both men and women, society did not insist that it should be performed at all cost, even if there were insuperable impediments in arranging a suitable match. The Vedic literature often refers to the spinster. *Amājūḥ*, "one who grows old in (one's parents') house" is the significant expression used to denote an old maid. The usual cause that compelled maidens to remain unmarried was some serious physical defect or disease. Such, for instance, was the case of Ghoshā, who could not marry till she was cured of her skin disease by the favour of gods Aśvins. In the age of the Upanishads hundreds of youths began to enter the monastery without caring to marry, and some maidens like Sulabhā began to follow their example with a view to achieve spiritual salvation¹. The commentary on the *Therīgāthā* shows that some women used to join Buddhist Saṅgha before their marriage; their number, however, was not very large.

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¹ साहं तस्मिन्कुले जाता भर्त्रर्यसति मद्रिधे । विनीता मोक्षधर्मेषु चराम्येका मुनिव्रतम् ॥ *Mbh.*, XII, 325, 103.

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By about 300 B. C. marriage came to be regarded as obligatory for girls. Several causes induced society to subscribe to this view. In the first place there was a reaction produced in society by maidens joining the Buddhist and Jain orders either without a genuine spiritual urge or without a free and spontaneous permission of their elders. Some of these were unable to live up to their high ideals, and their lapses were furiously commented upon by the public. Social thinkers began to feel that it would be better to prevent such abuses by making marriage obligatory for all girls. Secondly, the marriage of girls came to be compared to the *upanayana* of boys at about this time. If *upanayana* was obligatory for boys, marriage which was its counter-part, ought to be absolutely binding on girls. As we shall soon see, marriageable age of girls was reduced to 13 or 14 by this time ; girls found themselves already married before they attained an age when they could exercise an intelligent choice in the matter. The Mahābhārata informs us that it was the sage Dīrghatamas who laid it down that women ought never to remain unmarried in future¹. Elsewhere the epic illustrates the same principle by a naive story. Subhrū was the daughter of sage Kuṇi. Her father wanted to give her in marriage, but she would not consent. She remained unmarried for all her life, practising severe penance. At the time of her death, however, she learnt to her great surprise that she could not go to heaven because her body was not consecrated by the sacrament of marriage. With great difficulty she then induced sage Śṛṅgavat to marry her, stayed with him for one night and was then enabled to go to heaven (IX, 33).

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¹ अपतीनां तु नारीणामद्यप्रभृति पातकम् । I, 114, 36.

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The epic is undoubtedly right in emphasing the great necessity of marriage for girls in the above legend ; for there are more pitfalls in the path of an unmarried woman than those in the way of an unmarried man. As a consequence of the new theory which made marriage obligatory for girls, negligent parents must have become more alert in arranging the marriages of their daughters. It must, however, be admitted that this theory tended to crush the literary and spiritual ambitions of the gifted section of the fair sex. Further, it has to be pointed out that it led to grave abuses when pre-puberty marriages began to be insisted upon from about the beginning of the Christian era. Some Smṛitis like Yama began to advocate the unfortunate view that since marriage was compulsory for girls, parents should marry them even to undesirable persons, if suitable bridegrooms were not available before the time of puberty¹. This rule made the lot of a defective deformed or diseased girl very pitiable. She could not naturally get a good husband and her father had yet to marry her. He had therefore to spend heavily in marrying her to a person, who was almost certain to discard her, and contract a fresh marriage with a more suitable bride. It must, however, be added that even if a defective girl is kept unmarried, her lot is by no means happy. As years roll on and the parents die, her brothers do not care for her, and scoundrels and selfish persons in society are not few in number who delight in spreading thorns in her way.

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¹ दद्याद्गुणवते कन्यां नग्निकां ब्रह्मचारिणे । अपि वा गुणहीनाय नोपरुन्ध्याद्रजस्वलाम् ॥ Quoted in *SCS*, p. 216.

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It is interesting to note that marriage was made obligatory for girls in contemporary Persia as well. Matrimony however was not regarded there as necessary for the spiritual salvation of men. 'For a woman there is no offspring except by intercourse with a man and no lineage proceeds from her. But for a man without a wife, when he shall recite the Avesta as it is mentioned in the Vendīdād, there may be a lineage which proceeds onwards to the future existence.' (*Pahlvi Texts*, Part I, pp. 322-3). In India also students were regarded as the spiritual children of their teachers, and women teachers had practically disappeared from the scene by the beginning of the Christian era. But women’s incapacity to leave behind a spiritual lineage has not been advanced as an argument for making marriage obligatory for them.

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In India also marriage was made obligatory for women and not for men. One of the reasons may perhaps have been the possibility of men leaving a spiritual or intellectual lineage behind them. The real reason for this differential treatment, however, seems to have been the recognition by society of the simple fact that an unmarried woman has to face greater risks in society than an unmarried man. Public opinion also is much less sympathetic to a woman who has gone astray even unwillingly, than to a man who leads a vicious life deliberately. Smṛiti writters should, however, have recognised some exceptions to the general rule. This would have avoided its abuse in an age when pre-puberty marriages became the order of the day, and given scope to talented girls to master their favourite subjects and to spiritually minded women to try seriously for the realisation of their dreams. In that case the number of lady scholars would not have dwindled down and a Mīrābāi would not have been compelled to lead a married life much to her own and to her husband’s sorrow.

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