Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/291

Rh to these six forms one rite, Prajapatya, which was considered praiseworthy, and another form, Paisacha, which was sinful. In the Prajapatya form the father merely gave away his daughter to the suitor, saying, "Fulfil ye the law conjointly." The Paisacha form was simply a rape of an unconscious woman.

Marriages among kinsfolk were rigorously prohibited in the Philosophic Period. Vasishtha prohibits marriage between a man and a woman of the same gotra or pravara, or who are related within four degrees on the mother's side, or within six degrees on the father's side. Apastamba forbids wedlock between men and women of the same gotra, or who are related (within six degrees) on the mother's (or father's) side, but Baudhayana allows a man to marry the daughter of a maternal uncle or a paternal aunt.

The marriage of girls at a tender age was not yet prevalent in the Philosophic Period. Vasishtha says:—

"A maiden who has attained puberty shall wait for three years.

"After three years, she may take a husband of equal caste."

The marriage of widows, which was a prevalent custom in the Vedic and Brahmanic Periods, continued to prevail in the Philosophic Period, but was not looked upon with favour except in the case of child-widows, and the son of a remarried widow was often classed with adopted sons, or sons by an appointed wife or daughter.

The first great event in a boy's life seems to have