Eight forms of marriage
Topic: Society in Early India: Kinship, Varna-Jati, Women · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Kinship, Caste and Class - Early Societies"
Meaning
The Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras, especially the Manusmriti, recognise eight forms of marriage. The first four, Brahma, Daiva, Arsha and Prajapatya, were called "good". The other four, Asura (paying a bride price), Gandharva (marriage by mutual love), Rakshasa (taking the bride by force) and Paishacha (taking a woman who was asleep, drunk or unconscious), were condemned. Historians suggest the condemned forms may have been practised by people who did not accept Brahmanical rules.
Example
In Kalidasa's play Abhijnanashakuntalam, King Dushyanta and Shakuntala marry in the Gandharva form, by their own choice and without their families arranging it.
Don't confuse with
- Kanyadana: the father's gift of his daughter in marriage. It is a central idea in the approved forms, not one of the eight forms.