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SOCIAL LIFE
103
Of all the different types of marriage mentioned in the NC. marriages arranged by the parents were the most common, although the other types were also practised amongst the different sections of society.
Marriageable Age--No restriction to age-limit for marriage in case of men was put, as many of them married several times in their life.2 Instances show that some boys embraced the monkhood on the day of their marriage." The age of the boy therefore must have been at least sixteen at the time of his first marriage. The Jaina Šāstras of this period advocate twelve years as the age for the bride and sixteen years for that of the bridegroom. It is strange enough to see that while the Hindu law-givers of this age enjoy pre-puberty marriages for the girls," no examples of child-marriage are referred to in the text. The references indicate that the girls were quite grown up and had reached the prime of their youth (jauvvaņa-patta) by the time they got married, 6 In the classical Sanskrit litera. ture of the contemporary period the heroines are usually shown as quite grown up which does not easily coincide with the injunctions of the Smộti literature of the time. The various references in the NC. appear to quote the examples only from the Jaina families where the marriage of a girl before attaining puberty was not considered to be a religious binding,
1. LAI., p. 161. 2. NC. 3, p. 53; NC. 1, p. 15. 3. Ta pie frazit fufafaa AT-NC. 2, p. 108. 4. Jain, K. P., 'Marriage in Jaina Literature', IHQ, Vol. IV, p. 151.
According to Somadeva, a girl of twelve years and a boy of sixteen years become competent for selection. द्वादशवर्षा स्त्री षोडशवर्षः पुमान् प्राप्त
agri Haa:--Nitivā., p. 371. “This can be regarded as proper age of marriage recommended for adoption by the Jainas”-Sangave, op
cit., p. 149. 5. Yājilavalkyasmrti, 1. 13; see also--Altekar, op. cit., p. 68. 6. RT I UFATI aqui
T NC. 2, p. 417. 7. Among the Jainas the insitution of marriage is viewed clearly in its
social aspect. There is no religious motive in contracting marriage as
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