The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s3.44

c7.s3.44

The custom of pre-puberty marriages became common among the Brahmanas alone in the beginning; one writer even of the 17th century A. D. observes that the Kshatriyas are not expected to follow it¹. Life was more ephemeral in the case of the members of the fighting classes than it was with the rest of the community; they naturally refused to follow the new custom, which would have enormously increased the number of child widows in their community. We can therefore well understand how, in spite of the universal and terrible condemnation of the post-puberty marriages by Smṛiti writers from *c.* 200 A. D., child marriages did not come into vogue among the Kshatriyas for a long time. Heroines of most of the Sanskrit dramas written during the period 300-1200 A. D. are grown up brides at the time of their marriages; this is so because they mostly belong to Kshatriya circles. There are many historic examples of grown up marriages among the Rajputs during the medieval period. This will now cause no surprise to the reader.