Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.592

c7.592

some districts of the Central Provinces¹; thus in Wardha 12 p.c. and in Nagpur 10·1 p.c. of the girls are married when below 10 years in age. In Bombay² 1130 of the Hindu females are married at the age of 0-9 and 6064 at the age of 10-14. Here too the second marriage, often called by its earlier designation *garbhādhāna*³, takes place at the time of the attainment of puberty i.e., within sixteen days of the marriage and not as laid down in the Smṛtis. The statistics for Madras⁴ show very clearly how the child marriage is still very much in vogue among the Brahmans and on the contrary how very seldom it takes place among the Dravidian tribes. Thus there, among the Brahmans, 72·81 p.c. of the female population are married at the age of 10-14 while among other castes it is only 5-10 p.c. Here too the second marriage is called *garbhādhāna* among the Brahmans; here it extends over three days and takes place shortly after the attainment of puberty by the bride.