On the Early Marriages of the Hindus. 139 



ly desirable, as they throw much light on the representation 

 of the dramas' '(a). 



II. — On the Early Marriages of the Hindus. 



AT a monthly meeting of the Bombay Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, held in its library rooms on 

 Thursday the 9th June 1863, Dr. Biihler read a paper on 

 the early marriages of the Hindus, in which he attempted to 

 prove that the laws enjoining the early marriages of girls 

 are opposed to the practice of the Vedic age and therefore 

 not binding, even for an orthodox Hindu. He first traced 

 the gradual development of these laws in the Sm ri tieastras. 

 He pointed put that one class of these works to which the 

 Samvarta, Angirasa, Paracara and other dharma^astras be- 

 long, limit the time for marriage much more, and are much 

 severer in threatening punishments for offenders against 

 their laws than Manu, Gautama and Baudhayana. For 

 whilst, according to the former, girls must be married before 

 ten, or lose their caste, the latter authors, though they recom- 

 mend early marriages, allow the father to keep his daughter 

 at home up to the age of thirteen. After that time daugh- 

 ters are allowed to choose their husbands for themselves. 

 The a priori supposition that these laxer rules are the more 

 ancient, receives full confirmation from the Smarta, especi- 

 ally the Grihyasutras from some of which it appears that 

 marriages with women as well under as of more than full 

 age were permitted by law. 



But whilst the Sniarta Qastras and Sutras permit the con- 

 traction of marriages with females under age, the Bigveda 

 seems to be opposed to this custom. Amongst the Biks 

 which are recited at the marriage-ceremony, there are 

 some (R Y. X. 85, 38-41) which express the belief that the 

 bride belongs to the three gods, Soma (the moon), Gandharva 

 and Agni, before she passes into the possession of mortal 



(a) The library of the Madras Board of Examiners contains seven copies 

 of the Bimratagdstra, a standard work on music, dancing and theatri- 

 cal exhibitions. No. 2041, Taylor's Catalogue, I, 153), No. 1291 (Ibid, i, 

 291), No. 996 (Ibid, i, 433), No. 1587 (Ibid, i, 434), No. 757 (Ibid, ii, 

 211), No. 528 and 611 (Ibid, ii, 387), No. 284 (2) (Ibid, ii, 773). There 

 is also a No. 1666 at vol. 1, p. 434 which is said to be " prefaced by mat- 

 ter on musical modes, and on the tunes adapted to times and occa- 

 sions. A Telugu collection of tunes, called Sangita Raindkaram, was 

 printed at Madras by Venugo'pal Nayakkar in 1862. And the Editor 

 possesses a similar MS. in Canarese entitled Sangita Rainamdia . — Ed. 



