Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s1.92

c7.s1.92

¹ Compare Jaisi’s description in P. (hin), 124-6; Shah, 120, and Grierson for modern parallel. For provincial peculiarities, compare Barbosa, I, 116-17, how in Gujarat the married couple were taken to the temple where both of them fasted all day before the idol of Mahavira(?). Other people kept on entertaining them with fireworks, songs and other amusements. Compare also, for Muslim marriage D.R., 160, and especially for Nichhavar ceremony Figh Firuz Shahi, 203, and Grierson—Bihar Peasant Life where it appears that except for the substitution of popular Muslim saints and the ceremony of Nikah, the Muslim marriage did not differ from the Hindu system. Compare also Ibn Batuta’s account K.R., II, 47-9, where it clearly appears that Muslims borrowed almost all ceremonies and customs from Hindus. Compare the estimate of F.W. Thomas, 77, for Hindu influence on Muslim marriages: ‘Whereas the law permits to the faithful as many as four wives, and provides facilities for divorce on easy terms, monogamy is in India the prevailing rule and divorce is almost unknown. A second trace of Hindu influence is to be found in the rarity of the re-marriage of widows.’