Among the Hindus there are five modes of contracting marriage;[107] the first, or _Viváha_, after this form: the damsel’s father looks out for a son-in-law, to whom he presents money and goods in proportion to his means, and gives him his daughter, which is the most legitimate mode.[108] The second is the _Asurvívahah_, when without the consent of the father or mother, by employing force and violence, or the influence of money, the damsel is forcibly taken by the bridegroom from her parents’ house to his own, and there married to him. The third is the _Gandharviváhah_, when the bridegroom takes the damsel away with her consent, but without the approbation of her parents, and espouses her at his own house. The fourth is the _Rákshasa-viváha_, when the parties on both sides are at the head of armies, and the damsel, being taken away by force, becomes the victor’s bride.
The fifth is the _Písácha-viváha_, when the lover, without obtaining the sanction of the girl’s parents, takes her home by means of talismans, incantations, and such like magical practices, and then marries her. Písách, in Sanscrit, is the name of a demon, which takes whatever person it fixes on, and as the above kind of marriage takes place after the same manner, it has been called by this name.
On espousing a damsel, the intelligent Brahman, having taken the bride’s hand into his own, must go through the established forms prescribed by his faith, and move seven steps in advance.[109] When he espouses the daughter of a Chattrí, at the time of solemnizing the marriage, an arrow is to be held at one extremity by the bridegroom, and at the other by the bride; on contracting an alliance with a merchant’s daughter, the bride and bridegroom are to hold a scourge or some similar object in the same manner; on his marriage with the virgin daughter of a cultivator, the parties mark their union by a token of secret intimacy. When they deliver the bride to her husband, if her father be not alive, or her paternal grandfather, or if her brothers be not forthcoming on the occasion, then the most respectable person of the tribe or family is to perform the necessary ceremonies; and if the relations be not intelligent, then the damsel’s mother.