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XXIV, 41.
WOMEN.
109
36. (He who gives her in marriage) according to the Prâgâpatya rite, (brings her) into the world of the gods (and enters that world himself).
37. (He who gives her in marriage) according to the Gândharva rite, will go to the world of Gandharvas.
38. A father, a paternal grandfather, a brother, a kinsman, a maternal grandfather, and the mother (are the persons) by whom a girl may be given in marriage.
39. On failure of the preceding one (it devolves upon) the next in order (to give her in marriage), in case he is able.
40. When she has allowed three monthly periods to pass (without being married), let her choose a husband for herself; three monthly periods having passed, she has in every case full power to dispose of herself (as she thinks best).
41. A damsel whose menses begin to appear (while she is living) at her father's house, before she has been betrothed to a man, has to be considered as a degraded woman: by taking her (without the consent of her kinsmen) a man commits no wrong.
39. Regarding the causes effecting legal disability, such as love, anger, &c., see Narada 3, 43.
40. Nand., arguing from a passage of Baudhayana (see also M. IX, 90), takes ritu, 'monthly period,' as synonymous with varsha, ‘year.' But ritu, which occurs in two other analogous passages also (Gaut. XVIII, 20, and Narada XII, 24), never has that meaning.
41. Nand. observes, that the rules laid down in this and the preceding Sloka refer to young women of the lower castes only. Nowadays the custom of outcasting young women, who have not been married in the proper time, appears to be in vogue in Brahmanical families particularly. Smriti passages regarding the illegality of marriages concluded with such women have been collected by me, Über die rechtl. Stellung der Frauen, p. 9, note 17. The
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| SR No. | 007671 |
| Book Title | Zend Avesta Part 01 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | James Darmesteter |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1895 |
| Total Pages | 2695 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 49 MB |