Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.543

c7.543

The state of things at the present day shows that the opposition of the Brahmans was only partially successful. Thus it prevails in Bengal, chiefly only among the low castes¹; in the Bombay Presidency however it is very much in vogue even among the higher castes. In Guzerat the sale of girls is said to take place even now secretly, even among such people who publicly denounce it, and in the city of Bombay often an earnest money is paid by depositing valuable objects². Among the Samavedis, a respectable and strictly religious sect of Brahmans in Thana, the father of the bride gets from 200 to 1,000 rupees as the price of the bride³. Also in the Madras Presidency the payment of price for brides is customary among various castes⁴; the same in the Punjab⁵. In Assam marriages are effected almost only by purchase—it is common even among the Brahmans⁶. Of course in Bengal and elsewhere besides the price of the bride there is also the price for the bridegroom, because the custom of child-marriage has increased the demand for men in the marriage-market. Thus in the Smṛtis the exhortation for early marriage goes hand in hand with the polemic against the purchase of women, cf. § 17.