The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s1.13

c7.s1.13

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).