The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s6.84

c2.s6.84

The father of the bride at the election-day of his daughter has all the expense, not only in gifts to the pair, but also in largess to the people (though the suitor gives ‘to the priests’). This advanced stage probably brought the fee into disrepute; the latter remained as a survival, and ‘the pair of oxen’ that the law enjoins upon the bridegroom to give is a mere formality. The bridegroom is really paid to take the girl, if the father can afford the honor of suitors willing to wed his daughter for her state. Probably, therefore, private and small families retained the fee, while at court and by the upper classes it gradually became looked upon as an archaic barbarism.†