DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6523#0069
57
marriage of children to-day. I shall refer to them in
a moment, but even worse than Manu are some of the
Grrhya Sutras where you find the age laid down ;
where, say in Parasharasinrti, you find certain defi-
nite laws laid down about the age of the marriage-
able girl. I am going to ask you to disregard
those Smrtis, though I know the rightly honoured
Ragunatha Rao defended them by explaining them
away into conformity with the Yaidik law. Although
I have read both sides of the argument, I am not
able to follow him in that; and when I find in some
of these that the marriageable age is laid down at 8
for a girl, as it is in Parashara, and when I find that
Manu Himself—as it is said; I do not believe He
ever said it—says that the man of 24, having kept
Brahmacharya until his studentship is over, should
marry a girl of 8, and that the student of 30 should
marry a girl of 12; then I come up against those
laws of Nature which to me are more sacred than
any writing, however ancient, than any words,
however they claim inspiration, and whether it
be written or not—and I am obliged to confess it is
so written in the Smrtis—that a girl may be given in
marriage at 8 and at the latest at 10, then I can only
say of these Hindu books, as I have said of the books
of other faiths, that God's law in Nature is higher
than the written word of man, however it is claimed
to be inspired, and that when it comes to a contest
between the two then it is the law that cannot be
marriage of children to-day. I shall refer to them in
a moment, but even worse than Manu are some of the
Grrhya Sutras where you find the age laid down ;
where, say in Parasharasinrti, you find certain defi-
nite laws laid down about the age of the marriage-
able girl. I am going to ask you to disregard
those Smrtis, though I know the rightly honoured
Ragunatha Rao defended them by explaining them
away into conformity with the Yaidik law. Although
I have read both sides of the argument, I am not
able to follow him in that; and when I find in some
of these that the marriageable age is laid down at 8
for a girl, as it is in Parashara, and when I find that
Manu Himself—as it is said; I do not believe He
ever said it—says that the man of 24, having kept
Brahmacharya until his studentship is over, should
marry a girl of 8, and that the student of 30 should
marry a girl of 12; then I come up against those
laws of Nature which to me are more sacred than
any writing, however ancient, than any words,
however they claim inspiration, and whether it
be written or not—and I am obliged to confess it is
so written in the Smrtis—that a girl may be given in
marriage at 8 and at the latest at 10, then I can only
say of these Hindu books, as I have said of the books
of other faiths, that God's law in Nature is higher
than the written word of man, however it is claimed
to be inspired, and that when it comes to a contest
between the two then it is the law that cannot be