Studies in Jainism

Author(s): Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta

Page 152

MARRIAGE IN JAINA LITERATURE
143 be traced, 30 yet the general rule was and still is to marry in one's own sect only. This rigidness is now being slackened.
Age for marriage The earlier Jainas at the time of Tirthamkaras considered full youth to be the appropriate age for marriage.31 The couples were married when young and the honeymoon ceremony followed soon. When the parents saw that their children had reached the teens, they arranged for their marriages either by Svayamvara or selection. The gāndharvavivāhas, of which we hear now and then in that age, corroborate this fact. This love-marriage was possible only when the couples had stepped over their respective periods of maturity. But after the Tirthankaras in later times, the parents did not wait to this age. They married their children when the bride reached the age of 16 and the bridegroom 20 years. Later on, during the Muhammadan period, however, it became necessary to marry one's daughter as early as possible. This is why we find the Jaina Šāstras of this period advocating 12 years as the age for bride and 16 years as that for the bridegroom. Even to this day, the Jainas are sticking to this principle of Aptikāla of the Jainācāryas; but there are signs also of a new turn now.
Customs and Ceremonies At present, the rites and customs of marriage among the Jainas very according to the influences of the provinces in which they live; though they are still to be regarded the same in their main features as in ancient times. We find that Sulocanā, who was married in Svayamvara at the time of Sri Rşabhadeva, was first taken by certain married ladies, her relations, into the Vivāhamandapa, erected on the occasion in a befitting manner, and then as she reached and sat there facing east, she was bathed and anointed with fragrance. After that they all went with Sulocanā to the Jina
30. See the inscription of Tejapāla in the Jaina Temple, Dilwārā
Ābū, in which mention of a marriage between the Podawāla
and Moda - two different sects of the Jaina is made. 31. Harivamsapurāņa, sarga 55, Slokas 73 ff.