Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.570

c7.570

In the province of Smṛti literature even the oldest works take the standpoint adverted to above that it is a sin to let mature girls remain unmarried. In conformity with the general views about the function of women and the purpose of marriage, the loss of a ṛtu, i. e., the day regarded as appropriate for the raising of progeny, involves the sin of killing an embryo (bhrūṇahatyā). This is no doubt the reason why marriageable daughters who are not yet married may after three ṛtus herself go out to seek a husband; some authors lay down three years instead of three *ṛtus*. Utterances such as this that it is better for a girl to remain unmarried till death in her father's house than to be married to an unworthy person (M. 9, 89) are, according to Nīlakaṇṭha and others, not to be taken literally, and, moreover, such utterances are rare. Thus according to Baudh. 4, 1, 11 marriage with even an unworthy suitor is to be preferred to remaining in the parents' house.