History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.64

v2.c26.64

Gaut.¹⁰⁵⁰ (18. 20-23) says 'a girl should be given in marriage before she attains the age of puberty. He who neglects it commits sin. Some declare that she should be given in marriage before she begins to wear clothes. A marriageable girl (who is not given in marriage by her father &c.) should allow three monthly periods to pass and afterwards unite herself to a blameless man of her own will and give up the ornaments received from her father (or her family)'. This passage establishes that even before Gautama (i. e. 500 or 600 B. C.) there were people who advocated marriages of infant girls that did not care to put on clothes (i. e. who had no sense of shame if they went about without clothes), that Gautama disapproved of this view, that he only prescribed that the marriage of girls should take place before puberty and he was not horrified if girls got themselves married sometime after puberty. But it is clear that no blame attached to the girl married after puberty or to the husband; the idea, however, had arisen even then that the father or guardian incurred blame or sin by not getting a girl married before puberty. Manu (IX. 89-90) goes so far as to say 'A maiden may rather stay in her father's house even till her death, though she may have attained puberty; but the father should never give her to one who is devoid of good qualities. A maiden after attaining puberty may wait for three years (to see if she is given away by her father or brother &c.) but after this period she should seek a husband who is similar to her.' Anuśāsanaparva 44. 16 is to the same effect. Baud. Dh. S. IV. 1. 14 and Vas. V. Dh. S. 17. 67-68 give the same rule as in Manu IX. 90. But both add (Vas. 17. 70-71 and Baud. Dh. S. IV. 1. 12) that the father or guardian incurs the sin of destroying an embryo at each appearance of menses as long as the girl is unmarried. Yāj. I. 64 and Nārada (strīpuṁsa, verses 25-27) state the same rule.