The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s1.7

c7.s1.7

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.