Education in Ancient India c4.12

c4.12

Lapse from this Ideal: Owing to several causes, which cannot be discussed here, the marriageable age of girls began to fall down gradually from c. 600 B. C. From 16 it came down to 14, then to 12 and then to 11 or 10. The last mentioned limit was reached during the early centuries of the Christian era. The lowering of the marriageable age of girls naturally brought down the marriageable age of boys to about 16 or 18; marriage thus became inevitable before the end of education. As early as the 3rd century B.C. we find occasional references to the cases of husbands staying away from their wives for some years during their educational course;² these cases later became common. We may safely conclude that from about the beginning of the Christian era, more than 50 percent students used to marry before their education was completed.