A Manual of Hindu Marriage

interaction and dependence in moments of pleasure and pain, profit and loss.
Hence there is a justification in celebrating the moment with close friends and
relatives. For the same reason, it is also not unfair for the parents of the bride and
the groom to give some gifts and presentations to the newly-weds. Besides, if a
marriage ceremony according to some specified religious procedure is also made
into a program of entertainment, it becomes a special event for commemoration
of pleasant memories later. However, when the desire for entertainment and
exhibitionism crosses boundaries of decency and pragmatism and becomes an
obsession, it creates a dangerous situation for the family economy. This is one
reason, because of which for most of the persons marriage ceremonies have
become a liability and people are particularly worried about the marriage of their
daughters.

Now-a-days, some well-to-do factions of society are indulging in various types of

unnecessary exhibitionist expenditure during marriages. In the vain attempt to
emulate the former, even to a limited extent, an average family becomes
bankrupt and has to face the consequences for years.

Extravagance in matrimonial rites is the most damaging aberration of this

glorious tradition. In a large number of cases, the guardians of the groom expect
the bride’s parents to give the maximum dowry in cash and kind which is often
beyond the means of the donor, who somehow managing to meet the demand
even by disposing of personal assets, plunges deep into indebtedness. The
bride’s people too do not lag behind in this unhealthy practice and expect the
groom’s parents-who have already incurred huge expenditure in making the boy
educated and self-earning, to give expensive ornaments and clothes to the bride
and in the process both reach the brink of economic disaster.

In this way, the members of the groom’s and bride’s family enter into an
unhealthy competition of taking the maximum advantage from the other party-
the former looking for a donor of maximum dowry and the later for one who can
gift most expensive ornaments and clothes. In the process, both are subjugated to
back-breaking economic burdens and after a couple of marriages in the family
become bankrupt.

The expenditure on arrangements for marriage too is no less expensive.

Unbearable financial stress is to be borne by the groom’s party in decorations
and conveyance of the marriage-procession and in reception thereof by the
bride’s people. Those intending to join the groom’s procession abstain from their
jobs for long durations, and incur heavy expenditure exclusively for preparing
new clothes, besides making the groom and his family feel greatly obliged for
their company. The latter too, expressing gratitude for gracing the procession
make elaborate arrangements for conveyance and other facilities. Nevertheless,

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