Hindu Marriage: From Sacred Sacrament To Modern Social Contract
- IJLLR Journal
- Feb 17
- 2 min read
Mr. Rishabh, Advocate, Supreme court of India
Mr. Aryan Parmar, BBA LLB, National Forensic Sciences University, Delhi
INTRODUCTION:
Marriage under the Hindu Law is a sacrament solemnized by performing religious duties described in the dharmashastra text. Marriage is social event with a legal right of an individual performed by the men and a woman, both the sexes perform their legal social obligation of a Marriage. Hindu marriage can take place only through the performance of several religious ritual. The most important religious ceremonies related with Hindu marriage are Kanya Dana, panigrahana, Agni parinayana, Vivaha Home and Saptapadi etc. But in the contemporary time the societal situation is changing gradually and several changes have taken place related to the ceremonies of marriage.
With the change in time and influence of modernisation and westernisation, marriage under Hindu law has become more like an event or social showcase of the marriage that two individual are getting into a marital relationship and this had been observed that nowadays people are more concerned with the social pressure of maintaining the social status they avoid doing primitive and ancestral ceremonies, cultural activity and practices that our ancestors used to perform in the marriage according to the Hindu rituals just to showcase the society that we are modern people all this rituals are just for the sake of doing and not meant for.
Marriage under Hindu Law is not just a mere contract between two individuals by just by just coming into a marital relationship with the consent of both the parties but is more a religious activity that two adults perform together and perform ceremonies and religious activities to solemnize their marriage.
This paper will be aiming to provide comprehensive comparative analysis of legal and social aspects of Hindu marriage by analysing historical era legal framework and societal norms of that period as well as of contemporary time legal framework and social norms of Hindu Marriage. At the end of this paper, we will get to know the ground reality of marriage that has been changed after the modification of of true essence of the Hindu marriage and will encounter the new changes and reasons for the change in the sacrament that has been created by the society, laws and the society itself.
