Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c7.53

v1.c7.53

² Pradānam prāg ṛitoḥ "the girl must be married before the coming of menstruation". Gautama, xviii, 21; so also Viṣṇu, xxiv, 41; and in 23 Gaut. gives as the opinion of others: "before she wears clothes." This view is also in Vasiṣṭha, xvii, 70; Baudh., iv, 1.11. Cp. Manu, ix, 88 f. The point stressed by the law books is the fear lest otherwise the ṛitu of the young woman be left unused. As a matter of fact child marriage is really based not so much on religious grounds, as on economic: on the heavy competition in the marriage market. The father must find his daughter a good husband, and dare not wait long. This Risley has penetratingly and understandingly shown in Caste in Relation to Marriage (quoted in Billington, Woman in India, p. 59 ff.). Love comes, too, according to him, in marriage. Indeed, it comes perhaps the more surely just because a very early marriage may keep the girl from falling in love elsewhere, and perhaps very foolishly. Anyhow the thing is one that commends itself because of this fear too, to those in authority over the girl. Cp. Daçakumāraçar., p. 285, line 27 ff. of my translation. Indeed, the fear that the daughter may one day bring shame on the family