Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s10.13

c19.s10.13

Conjugal infidelity reminds us of two other offences connected with marriage, bigamy and forcible marriage. Polygamy in India was of course, no crime for a man, but bigamy on the part of a girl, specially when she was a Hindu, was unthinkable. Yet a few instances of this rare offence are recorded. The guardians of the girls were really to be blamed, the innocent victims were still in their minority. The usual punishment for forcible marriage was confiscation of property or excommunication or both. Sometimes the offender was fined. In one case an irregular marriage of a girl of three years, with a Brahman bridegroom forty-five years old, performed by force while the parents of the victim lay unconscious, was declared null and void and a second and more formal marriage with a suitable bridegroom was ordered. The offenders in this case were fined.⁵¹