marriage

Hi everyone! I was absent for some time, but now I’m back. And I want to write today about one of my favorite topics: marriage! Oh yes! That’s such a big source of both joy and trouble for many people and specially for women that there’s really much to be said on that.
So, let’s start saying once more that originally women were free in vedic culture to choose their own husband: "The woman who is of gentle birth and of graceful form," so runs a verse in the Rig Veda, "selects among many of her loved one as her husband.” The term for the bridegroom was vara, the chosen one. ”The happy and beautiful bride chooses (vanute) by herself (svayam) her own husband" RV (27.12). The swayamvaras of the princesses are well documented.
Of course there could be interference of family also, but the opinion of the woman would always be considered. And one more point that we can understand from this freedom of choice is that the woman was not a child, or she could not have the maturity to choose her own husband! Usually marriage would take time not too early in a woman’s life, nor too late. Although we know also that some woean could get married late on her life, like Gosha, a well known female sage (her husband being another well known scholar of that time, Kakasivan)who got married late cause she earlier suffered from some skin ailment. As discussed before, women also had the option of not getting married at all, if they wanted to remain single.
Once again, what we can see is that vedic society is one of freedom and respect for women and for all living beings, where everyone has duties according to its nature and position, but also have freedom to choose their position according to their nature, as well as behave according to their personality.