For instance, marriages between cousins is permissible in Islam (though not in most Hindu communities), and the girl's mother's sister (or khala) was considered to have the first right ( pehla haq) to "claim" the girl as for her son (the khalazad bhai). Where specific alliances were socially preferred, often an informal right of first refusal was presumed to exist. With kinship groups being viewed a primary unit to which social loyalty was owed by individuals, marriage became an affair deeply impacting the entire family for Indian Hindus and Muslims alike and key to "the formation or maintenance of family alliances." Sometimes, these arrangements were made at the birth of the future husband and wife with promises exchanged between the two families. Commentators on both Hindu and European Jewish communities (where early arranged marriages had also gained prevalence) have hypothesized that the system may have emerged because "the answer to the raging hormones associated with teenage sexuality was early, arranged marriage." This emergence of early arranged marriages in the Indian subcontinent was consistent with similar developments elsewhere, such as Indonesia, various Muslim regions and South Pacific societies. Early marriage, in which girls were married before they reached puberty also became prevalent, though not universal, over time.
It is also speculated that parental control of marriage may have emerged during this period as a mechanism to prevent the intermixing of ethnic groups and castes. Under the system they advocated (sometimes called Manuvad), women were stripped of their traditional independence and placed permanently in male custodianship: first of their fathers in childhood, then of their husbands through married life, and finally of their sons in old age. Manu and others attacked the Gandharva and other similar systems, decrying them as holdouts " from the time of promiscuity" which, at best, were only suitable for small sections of society. 500BC), the social ideas advanced by Manu gained prominence, and large sections of Indian society moved towards patriarchy and caste-based rules. Īs the Vedic religion evolved into classical orthodox Hinduism (ca.
The marriage of Dushyanta and Shakuntala was an example of this marriage. Another variant was the Gandharva marriage, which involved simple mutual consent between a man and a woman based on mutual attraction and no rituals or witnesses. Sometimes the father of the bride would arrange for a competition among the suitors, such as a feat of strength, to help in the selection process. The girl, who was also often given some prior knowledge about the men or was aware of their general reputation, would circulate the hall and indicate her choice by garlanding the man she wanted to marry. In a swayamvara, the girl's parents broadcast the intent of the girl to marry and invited all interested men to be present in a wedding hall on a specific date and time. Some were unique to the region, such as Swayamvara (which was rooted in the historical Vedic religion and had a strong hold in popular culture because it was the procedure used by Rama and Sita). The Indian subcontinent has historically been home to a wide variety of wedding systems. 3.3 Exchange of photographs/information with prospective matches.In the urban culture of modern India, the differentiation between arranged and love marriages is increasingly seen as a " false dichotomy" with the emergence of phenomena such as "self-arranged marriages" and free-choice on the part of the prospective spouses. 500 BCE period), substantially displacing other alternatives that were once more prominent. Īrranged marriages are believed to have initially risen to prominence in the Indian subcontinent when the historical Vedic religion gradually gave way to classical Hinduism (the ca. Despite the fact that romantic love is "wholly celebrated" in both Indian mass media (such as Bollywood) and folklore, and the arranged marriage tradition lacks any official legal recognition or support, the institution has proved to be " surprisingly robust" in adapting to changed social circumstances and has defied predictions of decline as India modernized. Arranged marriage is a tradition in the societies of the Indian subcontinent, and continue to account for an overwhelming majority of marriages in the Indian subcontinent.