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APPENDIX II
COMPULSORY MATRIMONY
Manu prescribes that an individual’s life on earth be divided into four stages. The four stages are: (1) Brahmacharya, (2) Grahasthashram, (3) Vanaprastha and (4) Sanyas. The stage of Brahmacharya is the stage of studentship—a period devoted to the study of the Vedas. The stage of Grahasthashram is the stage of married state or as Manu calls it the state of being an householder marrying and rearing a family. In the Vanaprastha stage the Vanaprastha ceases to be an householder in as much as he abandons his house. He, however, does not abandon his wife. He lives in jungle but does not give up his right to his property. He is dead in so far as the religious duties of an householder are concerned but he is not civilly dead. The stage of Sanyas is the stage in which a person breaks his marital tie, abandons his wife, gives up his wordly goods and leaves his household and does not follow the religious injunctions enjoined upon a householder and goes and lives in jungle to meditate upon Brahma. He is deemed to have committed civil death.
The division of man’s life into stages is an idea older than Manu. What is important is the changes Manu has made in the scheme.
The first change Manu has made is that he has made marriage compulsory. A Brahmachari after he has finished his study must marry. This is the rule laid down by Manu as may be seen from the following:
III. 2 (A student) “Who has studied in due order the three Vedas, or two, or even one only, without breaking (the rules of) studentship shall enter the order of householder.”
III. 4 “Having bathed, with the permission of his teacher, and performed according to the rule the Samavartana (the rite on returning home), a twice-born man shall marry a wife of equal caste who is endowed with auspicious marks.”
This chapter may be read along with the Riddle on ‘ The Four Ashramas’.— Ed.