The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c31.s5.15

v2.c31.s5.15

The marriage is not consummated for three nights after it: for that time the newly married couple must lie on the ground, avoid spiced or salted food, and, if they refrain from consummation for a year, the birth of a seer son is predicted for them. Between them in this period at night a staff is placed which is clad in a garment: it is clear that it is a symbol of the Gandharva Viçvāvasu, who is addressed when on the fourth night it is cast away. The exact force of the practice is uncertain: the desire by refraining from consummation to deceive evil demons and cause them to depart is a possible motive. Viçvāvasu as a Gandharva¹ seems to claim his rights of connexion with women even after the marriage, and must at first be appeased and then formally be banished.² But the obvious connexion of the rite with other similar rites over the world down to the *ius trium noctium* is a warning against any feeling of security in the interpretation of the customs, which are of immemorial antiquity and based on feelings which are perhaps to us no longer psychologically even possible. The Vedic marriage does not contain any hint that by a previous rite of any sort the danger of interference with virginity³ was removed, and, therefore, the first three nights may have seemed a time of too great danger to allow of immediate consummation of the marriage. In that case there may have arisen the idea that the Gandharva Viçvāvasu possessed these three nights, and the idea may be due to the rite, not a cause of it.