Page 74 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Unit 3: Marriage

rebellious, or harsh. In the Mahabharta, it is said that man who marries twice without any rational Notes
cause commits sin for which there is no penance. Nanda has said that a man who marries twice
should not be accepted as a witness. Daftri has said that no doubt one could marry more wives than
one at one and the same time, yet monogamy generally prevailed.
Today, polygyny has been legally prohibited. Bombay enacted a law in 1946, Madras in 1949 and
Saurashtra in 1950, prescribing punishment for bigamy. All these legislations were repealed in 1955
when the Central Government enacted the Hindu Marriage Act. Besides the legal restrictions, people
do not practice polygyny because: (1) nobody these days believes in the philosophy that one should
have a son to attain salvation (moksh) or to provide him support in the old age; (2) maintaining higher
living standards is not possible with more than one wife in the house; (3) plurality of wives increases
tensions in the family; and (4) woman having become economically and socially independent refuses
to accept man’s dominance over her. Since practice of polygyny lowers the status of women, a girl
refuses to marry a man who already possesses a wife.
Polyandry

Polyandry is marriage of one woman with many men, that is, it is a practice involving plurality of
husbands. The only example of Drupadi’s marriage with five Pandavas in the Mahabharta period
was justified by yudhistra on three bases: he cited other examples in which similar marriages were
performed; he cited examples of some of his ancestors who had practised polyandry; and he described
it as “mother’s command” and obeying mother’s command was son’s dharma. Vyasa, however,
described Drupadi’s marriage as ‘against usage’ and as such against dharma; yet he wanted it to be
accepted as preordained. In the Mahabharta itself, referring to polyandry, it is said: “To have many
wives is no dharma on the part of men but to violate the duty owed to the first husband would be a
great adharma in the case of a woman.
In recent times, the Nairs amongst the Hindus in South India practised polyandry. But Westermarck,
referring to these Nair marriages, has said that the polyandrous unions of the Nairs can hardly be
called marriages, considering that they were of loosest and most fugitive character, that the male
partners never lived with the woman and that the duties of fatherhood entirely were ignored. In
1896, the Malabar Marriage Act was passed which stabilized marriage among the Nairs. The marriage
is now dissolved among the Nairs by application to the district judge.
On the basis of the above analysis, it may be logically concluded that in early India, polygyny was a
rare practice, polyandry was not sanctioned, and monogamy was the only form of marriage practised.
Manu has also said in Manu Smriti: “Let mutual fidelity continue until death. This may be considered
as the summary of the highest law for husband and wife (see Kapadia, 1972: 97). Today, monogamy
is highly valued and marriage continues to be considered a sacred and a social obligation. Though it
is no longer an extravagant religious affair, yet principal religious ceremonies are still performed
both at the bride’s and the groom’s homes.
Mate Selection

All societies have mechanisms for controlling who gets married to whom. In the following pages, we
will look systematically at three problems in mate selection: (i) the field of selection, that is, the
restrictions imposed by religion, caste, class, kinship, etc. on acquiring a spouse; (ii) the party to
selection, that is, who determines the choice of the marriage partner; and (iii) the criteria of selection,
that is, what are the family and individual considerations in mate selection, or what are the attributes
desired in the boy/girl to be selected for marriage. We will discuss all these factors separately.
Field of Mate Selection

The general regulation of mate selection in Hindu society is subsumed under the concepts of endogamy,
exogamy and hypergamy.
1. Endogamy
Endogamy is a social rule that requires a person to select a spouse from within certain groups.
These endogamous groups specifically refer to varna, caste and sub-caste. Thus, a Brahmin boy

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 69