Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.551

c7.551

The characteristics of these forms of marriage are as follows: in the Brāhma Vivāha, the bride is offered out of free will and presented to an honourable man while in the Daiva Vivāha the bridegroom is a sacrificial priest, ṛtvij; in the Ārṣa Vivāha the father of the bride receives a pair of kine as already mentioned above, and in the Prājāpatya or Kāya Vivāha the offer of marriage comes from the wooer. These differences are not important and are apparently based on the religious conceptions of greater or lesser merit of an alms—the bride is here regarded as such—according as it is given away freely or is solicited or is presented to a man of more or less respectable position. The sacrificial priest is, as is often the case, inferior in position to a virtuous and learned Brahman; on the other hand his position is raised if he is just at that time engaged in a sacrifice just as the murder of a man engaged in a sacrifice is a still more heinous crime (Vi. 50,7).