History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.77

v2.c26.77

The rule that brāhmaṇa girls were to be married between 8 to 10 years became general from about the 6th or 7th century and continued down to modern times. During the last two or three decades the marriageable age of girls owing to several causes, particularly the ravages of plague and the economic condition of the middle classes, has risen very high and marriages of girls even of poor brāhmaṇas hardly ever take place before 16 and have to be postponed to the age of 20 and beyond. Besides the Child Marriage Restraint Act (XIX of 1929, as amended by Act 19 of 1938) has fixed the minimum age limit for girls at 14 and persons getting their daughters married before the completion of 14 years are liable to be punished in a criminal court under the Act. There is no reason to laugh at ancient Indian writers for the low age of marriage they advocated. Child marriages were common in all countries of Europe. Even in England the age limits for boys and girls were recognised by the law only at 14 and 12 respectively until 1929, when the lowest marriageable age for both was fixed at 16 (19 and 20 Geo. V. Chap. 36). Besides it must be remembered that when marriages of girls of tender years took place they were purely a sacrament. There was no question of consummation which took place only after puberty. Sages condemned intercourse even with one's wife before she attained puberty.¹⁰⁵⁹ Winternitz in 'Die Frau.' p. 135 refers to a work of F. J. Furnivall on 'Child Marriages, Divorces &c' between 1560-66 A. D. in England from which it is clear that marriages of children of 9 or 10 (and rarely of even 2 or 3 years) took place in England only about 300 years ago.