DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6523#0075
unconscious and one much modified, of the promis-
cuous cohabitation which he saw about him." That
I think is absolutely absurd. It cannot for one
moment be pretended as one of the reasons for early
marriage that the Aryans, among a people where mar-
riage practically did not exist, imitated promiscuity.
Conquest, yes, to preserve "the child and give her a
second protector if the father should be slain. And
if you try to trace the coming of early marriage to
its real source, after India became very largely a prey
to foreign invasions, if you take the times of tumult
and war that followed Kurukshetra, then I think you
may find in that a very natural explanation of the
earlier marriage, that the father, in a time of war
and tumult, desired to gain for his daughter another
protector, one to whom she would have a right to
turn if the father's home were broken up or raided.
There is a reasonable cause, a historical cause, which
you may recognise, and one that does seem to a large
extent to make early marriage at one time well-nigh
a necessity.
But I would submit to you that one great reason of
early marriage was the gradual lowering of the status
of Hindu women, and also the gradual decrease of
her education. As she lost her position of social
and civic equality, as her education became more
neglected and her faculties were not trained, in-
evitably she sank to a lower position, and was no
longer looked upon as the equal of the man she
cuous cohabitation which he saw about him." That
I think is absolutely absurd. It cannot for one
moment be pretended as one of the reasons for early
marriage that the Aryans, among a people where mar-
riage practically did not exist, imitated promiscuity.
Conquest, yes, to preserve "the child and give her a
second protector if the father should be slain. And
if you try to trace the coming of early marriage to
its real source, after India became very largely a prey
to foreign invasions, if you take the times of tumult
and war that followed Kurukshetra, then I think you
may find in that a very natural explanation of the
earlier marriage, that the father, in a time of war
and tumult, desired to gain for his daughter another
protector, one to whom she would have a right to
turn if the father's home were broken up or raided.
There is a reasonable cause, a historical cause, which
you may recognise, and one that does seem to a large
extent to make early marriage at one time well-nigh
a necessity.
But I would submit to you that one great reason of
early marriage was the gradual lowering of the status
of Hindu women, and also the gradual decrease of
her education. As she lost her position of social
and civic equality, as her education became more
neglected and her faculties were not trained, in-
evitably she sank to a lower position, and was no
longer looked upon as the equal of the man she