Kanyadana
Topic: Society in Early India: Kinship, Varna-Jati, Women · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Kinship, Caste and Class - Early Societies"
Meaning
Kanyadana means "gift of a daughter". Brahmanical texts treated giving a daughter in marriage as an important religious duty of the father. Daughters had no claim to the family's property, and marrying them outside the kin group (exogamy) was seen as desirable. Because of this, the lives of high-status girls were closely controlled so that they would make the "right" marriage.
Example
Under the gotra rules followed from c. 1000 BCE, the daughter given away took her husband's gotra and could not marry within her own. The Satavahana queens of the Deccan (c. 2nd century BCE – 2nd century CE) kept their fathers' gotra names, which shows that these rules were not followed everywhere.
Don't confuse with
- Stridhana: the gifts a woman received at marriage. They were her own property and passed to her children. Kanyadana is the giving of the bride herself.