epic marriage

[Georg von Simson]

S. Krishna asks:
>
>  My "prazna" on  this: Since Subhadra was "kidnapped" for the wedding
>by Arjuna, do the DharmazAstra rules apply strictly? As my understanding
>goes, the bride was always blameless in case of a "forced" marriage and
>the rules governing "forced" marriages were different from that of
>arranged marriages; so can the conventional rules be invoked for a
>special case like this?

   I cannot see why kidnapping should have effect on the sapiNDA etc.
rules. By the way, the case of arjuna and subhadrA seems to be a blending
of gandharva (mutual love) and rAkSasa (abduction and use of force).
According to Manu III. 26, this should be legal for a kSatriya; see Kane,
Hist. of Dh. II.I. p. 522, where the case of arjuna and subhadrA is
discussed.
   In my last message I should, of course, have referred to Kane, op. cit.,
p. 458 ff., where the problem of cross-cousin marriage is discussed in
detail (the arjuna-subhadrA case is mentioned on p. 459 f.). p. 459: "...
it is clear that a marriage with one's maternal uncle's daughter or
paternal aunt's daughter was in vogue in the south (below the NarmadA
probably) long before the Baudh.Dh.S. (i.e. several centuries before the
Christian era) and that North India did not go in for such marriages abd
that orthodox sUtra writers like Gautama and BaudhAyana reprobated such
practices."
   But since the story of arjuna and subhadrA is not connected with the
south, one may infer that the practice probably has been common in North
India as well.

Regards,
Georg v. Simson