The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s3.30

c7.s3.30

It is sometimes argued that girls used to be married not at about the age of 14 or 15 during the Mauryan period, but at the much younger age of 6 or 7. This contention is based upon Megasthenes, Fragment LI, where he states that among the Pāṇḍyas, who lived in Madura and Tinnevelly districts, girls used to be married at the age of 6. At the outset it may be pointed out that the Greek ambassador does not make this statement about the girls at Pāṭaliputra, of which he had first-hand information, but about the brides in Pāṇḍya country, which he had never visited. He had no first-hand information about South India and he makes this statement on the authority of a hearsay report, which gravely asserted that girls in that country could conceive at the age of 7, because of a favour conferred upon its women by Heracles of Greece, when he had visited it (*Arrian*, chap. ix). The marriage at the age of 6 and conception at the age of 7 are as true as Heracles' visit to south India.' The data from Greek authors do not thus invalidate the conclusion, reached above, that girls were usually married at about the age of 14 or 15 during the Mauryan period.