[108] According to Mr. Wilson, it is when the bridegroom gives to the bride, her father, and paternal relations, as much as he can afford. According to Ward, it is when money is received in exchange for a bride. Where a present is made to the father of the girl, the caste of the boy is not very respectable. In the most respectable marriages, the father not only gives his daughter without reward, but bears the expenses of the wedding, and presents ornaments, goods, cattle, and money to the bridegroom (_Ward_, vol. III. p. 163-168). Ward mentions eight kinds of marriage: 1. _Bráhma_, when the girl is given to a Brahman without reward; 2. _Daíva_, when she is presented as a gift at the close of a sacrifice; 3. _Arsha_, when two cows are received by the girl’s father; 4. _Prájápatya_, when the girl is given at the request of a Brahman; 5. _Asura_, as above; 6. _Gandharva_; 7. _Rákshasha_; 8. _Piśhácha_ (_Ward, ibidem_).――D. S.
[109] See for the marriage customs of the Hindus: _On the religious ceremonies of the Hindus and of the Brahmans especially_, Essay III. by H. T. Colebrooke, Esq.; _As. Res._, vol. VII. p. 288. Calcutta edit.; and also: _Mœurs, institutions et cérémonies des peuples de l’Inde_, par M. l’abbé J. A. Dubois, vol. I. chap. VI. pp. 284-326. Paris. 1825.
[110] This passage is nearly a literal translation from the Hetopades, p. 79:
“Three crores and a half are the hairs on a man; So long a time shall she live in paradise who follows her lord. As a snake-catcher forcibly draws up a snake from his hole, In the same manner she, having taken her husband, is exalted to heaven. The affectionate wife, who on the funeral pile has embraced her inanimate Husband, abandons indeed her own body: But taking up her husband, who has committed many sins――even a hundred times A hundred thousand――she shall obtain the mansions of the gods.” ――D. S.
[111] It is known that the sacrifice of widows was abolished in the year 1834, in all the Indian provinces under the government and influence of the English authorities, by lord William Bentinck, governor-general of India.――A. T.
[112] कुण्डं a hole in the ground for receiving and preserving consecrated fire.――(_Wilson._)
A part of the sacrifice, called _Yajna_, but it is often performed separately. The things offered are clarified butter, sesamum, flowers, rice, boiled in milk and sweetened in honey, Durva grass, vilwa leaves, and the tender branches, half a span long, of the _ashwatta_ (ficus religiosa), the _dumvara_ (ficus racemosa), the _palasha_ (butea frondosea), the _akunda_ (asclepias gigantea), the _sharni_ (mimosa albida), and the _kladira_ (mimosa catechu) (see _Ward_, vol. II. p. 58).――D. S.