Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.556

c7.556

The Smṛtis do not deal with the actual nuptial ceremonies because these things properly belong to the sphere of the Gṛhyasūtras which deal with the particular usages of the different Vedic schools. Thus in Kāmas. 228 too it is said that the sacrifice into the fire on the occasion of the marriage ceremony should be performed yathāsmṛti what is explained in the commentary by svagṛhyaproktavidhinā. Yet occasional notices of marriage ceremonies in the Smṛtis as well as in the Rām. and the Mah. and elsewhere, prove that there was a wide consensus of opinion regarding them.² Thus the giving away of the bride in the midst of festivities to the bridegroom (Kanyādāna, Sampradāna), the dextrarum junctio (Pāṇigrahaṇa), the Vedic Mantras accompanying these ceremonies (Pāṇigrahaṇikamantra), the sacrifice into the fire and the three courses round the nuptial fire, the seven steps together of the young couple (Saptapadī), taking the bride home (Vivāha) after which the whole ceremony has been named, and other usages were universally observed and may be traced to the Vedic age and in some parts even to the hoary past of the Indo-Germanic period and even at the present day they are very widely observed.