Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.571

c7.571

If the father is not alive the relatives who act as the guardians of the girl in the place of her father, have to look after the marriage of the girl and for that reason they are called "Kanyāpradāḥ", "those who give away the girl in marriage". In the lists of these "Kanyāpradāḥ" mostly only the male relations are mentioned,—the brother, the grand-father paternal and maternal, the uncles etc.—while the mother is often placed very low in the list. If there are no relatives at all the king himself should take their place. In the law of inheritance too the brother appears as the next Kanyāprada after the father; he should get his sister married and give her a fourth part of a son's share of the inheritance (Y. 2, 124), i. e., according to the plausible interpretation of some of the commentators, he has to bear the costs of a marriage worthy of his position which, without doubt, were very high already in ancient times as they are to-day. Thus in the Mah. 1, 113, 9 Śalya gives away his sister in marriage.