History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.23

v2.c26.23

gives expression to the then view that broad hips and slender waists make women attractive. Āśv. gṛ. I. 5. 3 says¹⁰²⁴ 'one should marry a girl who is endowed with intelligence, beauty, a good character and auspicious characteristics and who is healthy'. Śāṅ. gṛ. I. 5. 6 and Manu III. 4 and Yāj. I. 52 also require that the girl should be possessed of auspicious characteristics (or indications). These (lakṣaṇas) are of two kinds, bāhya (visible or bodily characteristics) and ābhyantara (invisible). Āp. gṛ.¹⁰²⁵ (III. 21) states a commonsense rule: 'a girl on whom his mind and eyes are riveted will bring him happiness (or prosperity), he should pay no heed to other things; this is the view of some'. The Kāmasūtra quotes the view of Ghoṭakamukha 'he should proceed to marry a girl on taking whom as his wife he would regard himself as blessed and would not be blamed by his friends (or persons in a similar station in life)'¹⁰²⁶. Manu III. 8 and 10, Viṣṇu Dh. S. 24. 12-16 say that one should not marry a girl having tawny hair or having an excessive limb (such as a sixth finger) or a deficient limb, who is hairless or very hairy, who is talkative and has yellowish eyes; but should marry a girl who has limbs void of any defect, whose gait is like that of a swan or an elephant, the hair on whose head or body is of slight growth and whose teeth are small, whose body is delicate. The Viṣṇu-purāṇa (III. 10. 18-22) adds that the girl must not have a marked growth of hair on her chin or lip, her voice must not be hoarse or like that of a crow; her legs and ankles must not be very hairy, there should be no dimples on her cheeks when she laughs, she should not be very dwarfish or very tall &c. Manu III. 9 and Āp. gṛ. (III. 13) say that the girl to be married must not bear names of the lunar mansions (such as Revatī, Ārdrā &c.), trees or rivers, she must not bear a mleccha name or that of a mountain, of a bird, of a snake or of a slave or a name that is terrific. Āp. gṛ. (III. 14) and Kāmasūtra III. 1. 13 mention that a girl should not be chosen, the penultimate letter of whose name is r or l (such as Gaurī, Śālī, Kamalū). Nārada¹⁰²⁷ (strī-puṁsayoga 36) says that defects of girls are as follows:—when they suffer from long-standing or disgusting diseases, when they are devoid of a limb or have already had connection with another man, when they are wicked or have their minds fixed on another; and Āp. gṛ. (III. 11-12) states other defects of girls viz. one should not choose a girl who is asleep or weeps or has left the house when persons come to see whether she can be chosen. Vide Mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇa 34. 76-77 for guṇas and defects of girls as 'brides'.