History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.70

v2.c26.70

In the Śalyaparva¹⁰⁵³ chap. 52 we have the story of a girl, daughter of Kuṇi Garga, who practised severe penance till she reached old age and yet was told by Nārada that if she died unmarried she would not go to heaven. The woman induced Śṛṅgavat of the Gālava family for a day previous to her death to marry her by the promise of giving him half of her merit (puṇya). The Vaik.¹⁰⁵⁴ (V. 9), while describing the ceremony of funeral rites in cases of distress, mentions the curious practice of finding out a male of the same caste for a girl, who dies unmarried though of the age of puberty, with whom a sort of marriage is gone through and the girl is then cremated. Whatever the reasons may be, this tendency to bring down the age of marriage for girls was accentuated in the first five or six centuries of the Christian era. The Laugākṣi¹⁰⁵⁵ gṛ. (19. 2) says 'brahmacarya for girls lasts till the 10th or 12th year'. The Vaik. (VI. 12) says that a brāhmaṇa should marry a brāhmaṇa girl who is a *nagnikā* or *gaurī* and defines nagnikā as a girl over eight years but less than ten and gaurī as one who is between ten and twelve and has not had menstruation. Aparārka (p. 85) quotes the Bhaviṣyapurāṇa to the effect that nagnikā is one who is ten years old. Vide Sm. C. quoting Saṁgraha. Parāśara, Yāj. and Saṁvarta go even beyond this. Parāśara¹⁰⁵⁶ (VII. 6-9) says 'a girl of eight is called gaurī, but one who is nine years old is a rohiṇī; one who is ten years old is a kanyā; beyond this (i. e. after 10 years) she is a *rajasvalā*. If a person does not give away a maiden when she has reached her 12th year, his pitṛs have to drink every month her menstrual discharge. The parents and also the eldest brother go to hell on seeing (an unmarried) girl reaching the state of a rajasvalā'. Parāśara adds that the brāhmaṇa who marries such a girl should not be spoken to or admitted to dinner in the same row (as other brāhmaṇas) and that he becomes the husband of a vṛṣalī. On the other hand the Vāyupurāṇa (83. 44) extols the marriage of a gaurī by remarking that her son purifies 21 ancestors on his father's side and 6 male ancestors on his mother's side. Saṁvarta (verse 65-66) has the same two verses as Parāśara (VII. 6 and 8) and winds up (verse 67) by saying that the marriage of a girl of eight is highly commended. The same four verses (Parāśara VII. 6-9) occur in Bṛhad-Yama (Ānan. ed.) chap. 3. 19-22, but the order is different. Aṅgiras (vv. 126-128, Ānan. ed.) has the same verses. Kaśyapa as quoted in the Gṛ. R. (p. 46) says that a girl is called gaurī when she is seven, a kanyakā when she is ten and kumārī when she is twelve. It will be noticed that the smṛtis of Vaikhānasa and Kaśyapa differed from Parāśara as to the definition of gaurī. Further the three smṛtis make marriage of a girl after puberty an extremely sinful act and condemn not only the parents but also the husband, while Baud. prescribed only a slight prāyaścitta for the father alone even if there was menstruation during the marriage rites. Marīci¹⁰⁵⁷ (quoted in Par. M. I. 2. p. 177) said that choosing a bride who was five years old was best. Even Manu (9.88) recommended an early marriage if a very desirable bridegroom was available. Rāma and Sītā are said to have been respectively 13 and 6 at the time of marriage (Araṇyakāṇḍa 47. 10-11). But this passage appears to be an interpolation. In the Bālakāṇḍa¹⁰⁵⁸ it is expressly stated that Sītā and her sisters enjoyed in private dalliance with their respective husbands immediately after marriage. If this is true then Sītā could not have been only 6 at the time of marriage.