Part
3 - Chapter 1
ON
MARRIAGE
WHEN
a girl of the same caste, and a virgin, is
married in accordance with the precepts of
Holy Writ, the results of such a union are
the acquisition of Dharma and Artha,
offspring, affinity, increase of friends,
and untarnished love. For this reason a man
should fix his affections upon a girl who is
of good family, whose parents are alive, and
who is three years or more younger than
himself. She should be born of a highly
respectable family, possessed of wealth,
well connected, and with many relations and
friends. She should also be beautiful, of a
good disposition, with lucky marks on her
body, and with good hair, nails, teeth,
ears, eyes and breasts, neither more nor
less than they ought to be, and no one of
them entirely wanting, and not troubled with
a sickly body. The man should, of course,
also possess these qualities himself. But at
all events, says Ghotakamukha, a girl who
has been already joined with others (i.e. no
longer a maiden) should never be loved, for
it would be reproachable to do such a thing.
Now
in order to bring about a marriage with such
a girl as described above, thee parents and
relations of the man should exert
themselves, as also such friends on both
sides as may be desired to assist in the
matter. These friends should bring to the
notice of the girl's parents, the faults,
both present and future, of all the other
men that may wish to marry her, and should
at the same time extol even to exaggeration
all the excellencies, ancestral, and
paternal, of their friend, so as to endear
him to them, and particularly to those that
may be liked by the girl's mother. One of
the friends should also disguise himself as
an astrologer, and declare the future good
fortune and wealth of his friend by showing
the existence of all the lucky omens
and signs, the good influence of planets,
the auspicious entrance of the sun into a
sign of the Zodiac, propitious stars and
fortunate marks on his body. Others again
should rouse the jealousy of the girl's
mother by telling her that their friend has
a chance of getting from some other quarter
even a better girl than hers.
A
girl should be taken as a wife, as also
given in marriage, when fortune, signs,
omens, and the words
of others are favourable, for, says
Ghotakamukha, a man should not marry at any
time he likes. A girl who is asleep, crying,
or gone out of the house when sought in
marriage, or who is betrothed to another,
should not be married. The following also
should be avoided:
-
One who is kept concealed
-
One who has an ill-sounding name
-
One who has her nose depressed
-
One who has her nostril turned up
-
One who is formed like a male
-
-
One who has crooked thighs
-
One who has a projecting forehead
-
-
One who does not like purity
-
One who has been polluted by another
-
One who is affected with the Gulma
-
One who is disfigured in any way
-
One who has fully arrived at puberty
-
-
One who is a younger sister
-
In
the same way a girl who is called by the
name of one of the twenty-seven stars, or by
the name of a tree, or of a river, is
considered worthless, as also a girl whose
name ends in `r' or `l'. But some authors
say that prosperity is gained only by
marrying that girl to whom one becomes
attached, and that therefore no other girl
but the one who is loved should be married
by anyone.
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