Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.538

c7.538

It is also unmistakable that the price of the bride (*śulka*) mentioned in the Smṛtis often signifies merely a present from the bridegroom to the bride or from the husband to the wife,—thus, for example, it is mentioned as a part of the Stridhana (Vi. 17, 18; Y. 2, 144) and Vṛddha M. speaks of the *śulka* as a present from the husband to the wife. Elsewhere however this term may have only the meaning “price of the bride,” for example, when M. 8, 204 says that if a false bride is presented to a bridegroom he should be granted two brides for the *śulka* he has paid, or when M. 9, 100 says that to give away the daughter "for the price settled upon as *śulka*" is a covert act of selling. On the other hand however M. 9, 97 says that in case the bridegroom dies after the *śulka* has been paid, the brother of the bridegroom shall represent him. The wife is even mentioned as a means of earning money (Vi. 58, 10, Nār. 1, 46). It should also be noticed (see below) that in Vas. and the unpublished Hār. the purchase of women has been called the Mānuṣa Vivāha, "form of marriage appropriate for men".