Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.575

c7.575

² This is merely a pious wish as the commentators too have hinted at. The author of this verse sees nothing beyond the fact that a man must be thirty before he is able to finish the study of the Vedas and that Indian women attain puberty about the age of twelve and forthwith he makes the rule that a man of thirty should marry a girl of twelve. But, naturally enough, this rule has been little observed; we do not find a single instance in Sanskrit literature—in the epics, dramas etc.—where a man is marrying for the first time at thirty. Daśaratha intended to get Rāma married (Rāmāyaṇa I, 18, 37) when he was fifteen (Ibid. I, 20, 2). Buddha too was married long before he was thirty. We shall perhaps get a glimple of the true state of things from the verse quoted by Yaśodhara on Kāmas. III, 1,12 which declares that the bride should be younger than the bridegroom by four to eight years : चतुर्दाष्टम यावत् कनिष्ठा वत्सरे वरात् । कन्यां परिणयेच्छुस्तां नेतरातियथा वा ।।