The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s3.1

c7.s3.1

Girls were married at a fairly advanced age in the Vedic period. The precise age is not stated, but from the Avesta we learn that maidens were usually wedded at the age of 15 or 16 in ancient Persia (*Vendīdād*, 14, 15). The same was certainly the case in the Vedic period. The very term for marriage, *udvāha*, ‘carrying away (of the bride)’ presupposes a post-puberty marriage, for it shows that immediately after her marriage, the bride went to her husband's house to live as his wife. A perusal of the marriage hymn (X, 185) shows that the bride was fully mature and quite grown up at the time of the marriage; she is expressly described as blooming with youth and pining for a husband¹. A hope is expressed that the bride would forthwith take over the reigns of the household from her parents-in-law². This would have been possible only in the case of grown up brides, at least 16 or 18 years in age.