Origin of Dowry System
There is no word for dowry in Sanskrit. The Hindi word dahej is a corrupted form of the Arabic word jahez. Jahez is an established Arab practice from pre-Islamic days. Islam provided for Mahar. Mahar is the compensation for marriage, to be agreed to be paid by the bridegroom to the bride. It is in practice never paid if the marriage continues happily, husband and wife forming the same financial unit as a family. But if marriage dissolves by divorce, the husband has to pay it. Hence in practice it is a compensation for dissolution of marriage.
Hence there are two types of money involved in a Muslim marriage. Jahez is paid by the girl’s father to the bride-groom or to his family at the time of marriage and mahar is agreed to be paid by the bride-groom to the bride in future as a part of the contract of marriage. Higher the family status, higher is both the amounts. An extremely high mahar is in fact a guarantee that the husband will not able to divorce the girl, because he will have to pay that much to the bride at the time of divorce.
In the Muslim society, strict codes of purdah or veil were followed. Women could not be seen by any male who is not a family member. Hence pre-marriage attraction and affairs could not take place. Eligible males had little choice but to select the bride on the basis of family status and repute of the bride’s family and also dowry. This led to evolution of the custom of arranged marriage. In arranged marriages, parents of the bride and the bride-groom are involved and at that level dowry became an important consideration.
Before Muslim period, Hindu marriage was usually not essentially decided by the parents. The very word for bride-groom or husband in Sanskrit—vara—means selection. The bride-groom used to be selection of the bride. There is enough evidence in Sanskrit literature that love and romance were quite respectable and the Indian lovers and beloveds did not suffer persecution like Laila and Majnun.
Instead of dowry, bride-price did occasionally exist but it was not a favored practice. The types of marriages which existed in ancient India have been classed into eight types. The first four were socially approved and the last four not. The fifth one below, the Gandharva Vivaha, was approved for the Kshatriya class.
1. Brahma vivaha: Marriages of a well-dressed and ornamented (abhushana-yukta) girl to a man of the same class. Apart from mention of ornaments borne by the girl, there is no mention of any other belongings, fees or money involved. Neither dowry nor bride-price was paid.
2. Daiva vivaha: When a householder invited a scholarly person to his home and requested to perform certain rites and yajna, then gifted his daughter to the scholar as a part of his professional fee and mark of respect.
3.Arsha vivaha: Dowry was not paid but the bride-groom gave a cow and a bull to the bride’s parents as a token bride-price or a gift out of respect.
4.Prajapatya vivaha: Dowry was not paid. Bride-price was not paid either. It was like a civil marriage without fanfare.
5.Gandharva vivaha: Marriage by consent of the two parties. Only mutual desire consent were required. Any rituals, any witness or any ceremony was not required. It was often clandestine. In fact, it was decision of a man and a woman to be partners for life and that was it.
6. Asura vivaha (demon marriage): Marriage where a girl was purchased for the purpose. It was disapproved of and criticized.
7.Rakshasa vivaha (devil marriage): Marriage by capturing or kidnapping a girl. Disapproved and criticized.
8.Paishacha vivaha (ghost’s marriage): This can scarcely be called marriage. When some wicked person seduced a girl by taking advantage of any one of the following a) deep sleep, b) mental illness, c) making her drunk or use of narcotics; and later procured marriage because of this relationship. This was again a disapproved form of marriage.
In all these marriage forms, dowry never occurs. In one, i.e. Arsha vivaha, only symbolic bride-price of a cow and a bull ocurrs. In Asura vivaha, girl is purchased and a real bride price is paid, but this marriage was not approved of by religion and society. Hence there is a need to further research the matter as to how dowry came into Indian society. Whatever be the manner and reason of adoption of this practice, it is clear that this practice was a result of Indian’s contact with Muslim society.
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