The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s6.62

c2.s6.62

Now the later tabulated and scheduled wisdom, as we find it in the Bṛhat-Saṃhitā, gives a remarkable statement, to the effect that a woman is not full grown till she is twenty.† On the other hand, the only Epic that specifies the age of the heroine makes Sītā six years old at the time of marriage (quoted above, p. 110, note). But we can trust the law to help out the Epic in this particular. It is not likely that unanimity on such a point would exist among law-books, were there great differences in practice. Suppose we divide life into the four divisions usually accepted by the Hindus: babyhood, youth, maturity, old age. The period of babyhood extends to the time when it is necessary to put on clothes. Now some of the law-givers say ‘let a girl be married before she wears clothes’; one says, ‘before puberty’;‡ and a later (verse) law says, ‘while the girl is still naked let her father give her in marriage.’§