Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c12.285

c12.285

Manu’s rules regarding the stridhana differ according to the forms of marriage. It is said that, if the wife dies without leaving any issue in the āsura, rākṣasa and paiśāca forms of marriage, the stridhana belongs to her mother and father, i.e. to her parents’ family and not to her husband, as is the case in the first four and the gāndharva forms of marriage.⁶ This would show that matrilineal elements had some importance in the forms of marriage practised by the vaiśyas and śūdras.