Brahma Marriage

One of the eight ways to perform a
marriage according to the Dharma
Shastras, the treatises on religious
duty (dharma). In a Brahma marriage
the bride’s father gives away his
daughter, along with any ornaments
he can afford, to a learned man of
good character. This man is respectfully invited to accept her with
absolutely no conditions or fees. This
form is considered the most suitable
for Brahmans because it is free from
lust or any sort of financial inducements, hence the name Brahma marriage. For these reasons it is also
deemed the best of the four approved
(prashasta) forms of marriage.
The Brahma marriage is one of the
two forms practiced in modern India. It
is by far the more socially respectable,
since the asura marriage—in which the
groom gives money to the bride and her
family—carries the connotation of selling the bride. Yet even with the Brahma
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Brahma Marriage
marriage, there has been significant
divergence from the classically mandated form. In many modern Indian
weddings, it has become common for
the bride’s family to give the groom’s
family a dowry as a condition for
the marriage, which can easily be
interpreted as selling the groom. See
also marriage, eight classical forms,
and prashasta marriages.