Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.605

c7.605

The bridegroom too, like the bride is examined for his body-marks (*lakṣaṇa*). According to Nār. 12, 8 ff., and Y. 1,55, much care was taken to examine the bridegroom as to whether he was constitutionally impotent or not, which, according to Nār. 12, 16, 97, was also a ground for dissolving a marriage. Yet from M. 9,203 it is clear that such men were mostly married. The astrologers too were consulted on the occasion of these examinations and therefore the Kāmas. (p. 192 f.) lays down that the bridegroom should send his good friends to the parents of the maiden disguised as astrologers (*daivacintaka*) and that they should prophesy to them a brilliant career for the suitor judging by the flight of birds position of planets, etc.