Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s10.t4: Dowry System

Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s10.t4

Language: English

Dowry System

c12.s10.t4.1

We have instances which show the existence of the dowry system in the form of money, goods or estate which a woman brought to her husband in marriage. We are told of the wives of Mahāsayaga of Rāyagiha, who possessed ancestral property³³ Then we hear of a king of Vāṇārasī who gave away one thousand villages, one hundred elephants, plenty of treasure (bhaṇḍāra), one lac of foot-soldiers and ten thousand horses to his son-in-law in marriage.³⁴

c12.s10.t4.2

³³ Uvā 8, p 61 Also cf Altekar, op cit pp. 82-4

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³⁴ Uttarā Ṭī 4, p. 88; also cf Rāmāyaṇa 1. 74.4 ff The Jātaka mentions the custom of celebrating the marriage with bath money given by the father to his daughter, specially in royal weddings (Mehta, P B I p 281).

Cites (3)

Uttarādhyayanaśiṣyahitā — Śāntisūri, Sanskrit
Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit
Uvāsagadasāo — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit