An arithmetical correction to note for the translation of Manu 9.94c:

4) Manusmṛti

triṃśadvarṣo vahet kanyāṃ hṛdyāṃ dvādaśavārṣikīm |
tryaṣṭavarṣo 'ṣṭavarṣāṃ vā dharme sīdati satvaraḥ || MDhŚ 9.94 ||

“A 30-year-old man should marry a charming girl of 12 years, or an 24-year-old, a girl of 8 years -- sooner, if his fulfilling the Law would suffer.”

The groom is thus prescribed to be 2.5 to 3 times the age of the bride.

Best,

Tim Lubin

From: Walter Slaje <walter.slaje@gmail.com>
Reply-To: "risa-l@lists.sandiego.edu" <risa-l@lists.sandiego.edu>
Date: Saturday, September 5, 2020 at 6:35 AM
To: Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh@umich.edu>
Cc: INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>, "risa-l@lists.sandiego.edu" <risa-l@lists.sandiego.edu>
Subject: Re: [RISA-L LIST] [INDOLOGY] sources on markers of girls' transition to adulthood

Below are some additional indications that could be followed up in the course of your research.

Kind regards,

1) See Richard Schmidt (Beiträge zur indischen Erotik. 3. Aufl. Berlin 1922: 645–649) with source quotes on marriage age and also marks of pubescence).

2) See moreover Ram Gopal, India of Vedic Kalpasūtras. Delhi ²1983: 212 with relevant quotes (p. 220, n. 59) also on the important term nagnikā („naked“) in the context of the ideal marriage age:

nagnikām [=] aprāptastrībhāvām ayauvanarasām upayaccheta (“let him approach a nagnikā girl for intercourse in whom the sexual characteristics of a woman are not yet developed and in whom the menstrual fluid (yauvanarasa) has not yet emerged.”).

nagnikā, defined as the “best” (śreṣṭhā) in the above passage of Mānavagṛhyasūtra as cited by Gopal, seems actually to refer to the absence of pubic hair (ajātalomnī) as also discussed, e.g., by Bhaṭṭanārāyaṇa on Gobhilagṛhyasūtra 2.5.7. According to the latter’s testimony there were Ācāryas who stipulated intercourse with prepubescent married girls lacking pubic hair, if these girls themselves desired so:

yady ajātalomny evātīva puruṣābhogārthinī syāt, tathā sati, […] maithunaṃ kartavyam ity eke ācāryā manyante.

3) The Kashmirian Kāṭhakagṛhyasūtra determines the age of marriage of girls at 10, at the very latest at 12 years (daśavārṣikaṃ brahmacaryaṃ kumārīṇāṃ dvādaśavārṣikaṃ vā KGS 19.2), on which Devapāla comments: varṣadaśakād ūrdhvaṃ brahmacarye kumārī na sthāpayitavyā pitrā । agatyā vā dvādaśa varṣāṇi nātikramaṇīyāni ॥ (Devapālabhāṣya ad 19.2. ||

4) Manusmṛti

triṃśadvarṣo vahet kanyāṃ hṛdyāṃ dvādaśavārṣikīm |
tryaṣṭavarṣo 'ṣṭavarṣāṃ vā dharme sīdati satvaraḥ || MDhŚ 9.94 ||

“A 30-year-old man should marry a charming girl of 12 years, or an 18-year-old, a girl of 8 years - sooner, if his fulfilling the Law would suffer.” (Olivelle 2005, p. 194).

There is a wider range of evidence for an ideal marriage age for girls aged 8 (aṣṭavarṣā): To start with Pārvatī, Śiva’s wife, it is said that she was married at the age of eight (8), i.e. before puberty, the technical term for which is gaurī (significantly also used as an epithet for her):

5) Jayadratha’s Haracaritacintāmaṇi

devī himavataḥ putrī kālī nīlotpalacchaviḥ |

aṣṭavarṣā tapoyuktā bhartāraṃ prāpa dhūrjaṭim || Hc 22.3 ||

sā krīḍantī pitṛgehe śambhunā saha pārvatī |

dṛṣṭvā dṛṣṭvā vapuḥ śyāmaṃ nāhaṃ gaurīty alajjata || Hc 22.4 ||

6) gaurī = aṣṭavarṣā = prepubescent:

Brhadyamasmrti (= Parāśarasmṛti 7.4):

aṣṭavarṣā bhaved gaurī navavarṣā ca rohiṇī |

daśavarṣā bhavet kanyā ata ūrdhvaṃ rajasvalā || YS 182v 3.21 ||

7) Aṣṭavarṣā marriage in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Vāyupurāṇa:

puṇyāham adya saṃjātam ahaṃ tvaddarśanotsukaḥ |

kanyā madīyā rājendra hy aṣṭavarṣā vyajāyata || RKV 142.18 ||
[…]

caturbhujo mama sutas triṣu lokeṣu viśrutaḥ |
tasyeyaṃ dīyatāṃ kanyā śiśupālasya bhīṣmaka || RKV 142.20 ||

8) Rāmāyaṇa

Sītā, too, was married before the age of puberty as a “kaumārī”:

svayaṃ tu bhāryāṃ kaumārīṃ ciram adhyuṣitāṃ satīm |

śailūṣa iva māṃ rāma parebhyo dātum icchasi || Rām 2.27.8 (CE)||

The Gītā Press translates from an emic insight point of view: „who was married to you before puberty”.

The commentaries Rāmāyaṇaśiromaṇi und Bhūṣaṇa on this passage (Rām 2.30,8) confirm kaumārī as “kumārāvasthāyāṃ eva vivāhitā” (“married already in the period of life of a ten to twelve years old maiden”).

kumārī = 1. “A young girl, one from 10 to 12 years old“ (Apte)

9) A significant term for a a sexually mature, fully developed girl is prauḍhā (cp., eg., Bhāgavatapurāṇa 4.25.21 (a-prauḍhā – “not yet fully developed”), or ūḍhā (cp. nava-ūḍhā – “having just attained puberty”, as in Brahmavaivartap., ch. 112).

Am Sa., 5. Sept. 2020 um 03:08 Uhr schrieb Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>:

Hello Sundari,

I see these quotations from various texts embedded in the commentary Tattvabodhinī on Bhaṭṭoji's Siddhānta-Kaumudī, on rule 3168 of SK [p. 531, edition of SK with Tattvabodhinī, edited by Wasudev Laxman Shastri Panshikar, 7th edition, Nirnaya Sagara press, Mumbai, 1933]: These are comments on the word gaurī:

"गौरी त्वसञ्जातरज:कन्याशङ्करभार्ययो:" ... इति मेदिनी ।..."अष्टवर्षा तु या दत्ता श्रुतशीलसमन्विते । सा गौरी तत्सुतो यस्तु स गौर: परिकीर्तित: ।।" इति ब्रह्माण्डवचनं श्राद्धकाण्डे हेमाद्रिणोद्धृतम् । एतेन "गौर: शुच्याचार:" इत्यादि भाष्यं व्याख्यातम् ।

The end of the above passage uses the quote fromthe Brahmāṇḍa-Purāṇa to argue that the word gauraḥ used by Patañjali in defining a Brāhmaṇa does not refer to the skin color, but it has a Dharmaśāstric significance as "the son of a woman who was given at her age of eight to a learned and righteous Brahmin." The same quote is used by the great Nāgeśabhaṭṭa in one of his commentaries. I have cited that in one of my publications, and I have to hunt down that reference. But it is exactly the same argument.

On a personal level, the history of my own family shows the gradual change from that old standard for the age of marriage. My grandmother was married when she was 9. My two paternal aunts were married at the age of 14 or 15, and since that was considered rather too late, they were married to widowers. My own mother was married at her age of 16. This is an interesting trajectory of history within a single family.

With best wishes,

Madhav M. Deshpande

Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

On Fri, Sep 4, 2020 at 5:09 PM Olivelle, J P via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

The most straightforward statement in Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra 3.3.1:

A woman 12 years old has reached the age for legal transactions (vyavahāra), as also

a man 16 years old.

Best,

Patrick

On Sep 4, 2020, at 5:23 PM, Sundari Johansen Hurwitt via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Hi all,

I am looking for sources that explore the age at which a girl traditionally becomes an adult woman (meaning, she transitions into defacto adulthood by the standards of the time) in Hindu culture, prior to the 19th century. I'm already aware of the Indian Penal Code setting the age of consent for marriage for girls at 10 years old in 1860, and the history following that.

In particular I'm looking for primary and/or secondary literature that mention bodily processes, rites of passage, age, or other markers of that transition to adulthood.

Many thanks!

-sundari

--

Sundari Johansen Hurwitt
sundari.johansen@gmail.com
sjohansen@ciis.edu
she/her

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