Rules of marriage

The central idea in this section is that marriage rules in early Indian society were shaped by the need to preserve the patrilineage. Since sons were essential for carrying the family line forward, daughters were seen very differently. A daughter had no claim to the household's resources. Instead, the ideal was to marry her into a family outside the kin group. This practice is called exogamy — literally, marrying outside one's own group.

For families that claimed high status, this meant carefully controlling the lives of young girls and women. They had to be married at the "right" time and to the "right" person. This concern gave rise to the religious duty of kanyadana — the gift of a daughter in marriage. The father who performed this act was seen as fulfilling an important religious obligation.

The rise of new social codes

With the emergence of new towns, social life became more complex. People from different regions began to buy and sell products and share ideas in these urban centres. This mixing may have led people to question older beliefs and practices. The Brahmanas responded to this challenge by laying down detailed codes of social behaviour. These codes were meant to be followed first by Brahmanas themselves, and then by the rest of society.

From around 500 BCE, these norms were compiled in Sanskrit texts called the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras. The most important of these works is the Manusmriti, compiled between roughly 200 BCE and 200 CE.

The eight forms of marriage

What is interesting is that the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras recognised as many as eight forms of marriage. Of these, the first four were considered "good," while the remaining four were condemned. It is possible that the condemned forms were practised by those who did not accept Brahmanical norms.

Here are four of the eight forms as described in the Manusmriti:

• First form: The gift of a daughter, after dressing her in costly clothes and honouring her with presents of jewels, to a man learned in the Veda whom the father himself invites.
• Fourth form: The gift of a daughter by the father after he has addressed the couple with the text, "May both of you perform your duties together," and has shown honour to the bridegroom.
• Fifth form: When the bridegroom receives a maiden, after having given as much wealth as he can afford to the kinsmen and to the bride herself, according to his own will. …