Note on the Gāndharva form of marriage

Note: this text is extracted from Book I, chapter 7.

This form of marriage occurs in the Ocean of Story more frequently than any other. This may be due to the fact that our heroes are usually warriors and belong, therefore, to the Kṣatriya caste, and it is for this caste that the gāndharva form of marriage is particularly recommended.

The name of the marriage is taken from the Gandharvas, who are spirits of the air, and are, moreover, very fond of beautiful women. Thus the nature of the marriage is explained—the only witnesses are the spirits of the air, and the marriage itself is due to sexual attraction, sometimes quite sudden and unpremeditated.

In the course of the present work the gāndharva form of marriage occurs about a dozen times, and the context usually shows that those who participated realised a certain irregularity in their action, although they knew that they were “within the law.”

Thus we read

“... and secretly married her by the...”;
“... and secretly made her his wife by the    then they both became eager for the...”;
“... made the fair one forget her modesty, and married her by the..”

Manu (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxv, by Bühler, 1886) first refers to this form of marriage in iii, 21 - 26 , pp. 7.9-80. Speaking of the four original castes, or varṇas (Brāhmans, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas and Śūdras), he says that they use eight marriage rites—viz. brāhma, daiva, ārsha, prājāpatya, āsura, gāndharva, rākṣasa and paiśācha; and (23) that the first six are lawful for a Brāhman, and the last four for a Kṣatriya, and the same four, excepting the rākṣasa rite, for a Vaiśya and a Śūdra.

Each rite is briefly described, and (in 32) we read:

“The voluntary union of a maiden and her lover one must know (to be) the gāndharva rite, which springs from desire and has sexual intercourse for its purpose.”

Later we learn that of the eight rites the first four are blameless and the last four blamable, and that (41) from the latter spring sons who are cruel and speakers of untruth, who hate the Veda and the sacred law.

In the introduction to Sir R. F. Burton’s Vikram and the Vampire, 1870, the dancing-girl Vasantasenā marries the devotee by the gāndhana rite. Burton adds the following note (p. 28):—

“This form of matrimony was recognised by the ancient Hindus, and is frequent in books. It is a kind of Scotch wedding—ultra-Caledonian — taking place by mutual consent, without any form or ceremony. The Gandharvas are heavenly minstrels of Indra’s court, who are supposed to be witnesses.”

In his Principles of Hindu and Mohammedan Law, I 860 , Sir VV. H. Macnaghten (p. 63) states that the gāndharva form of marriage is “ peculiar to the military tribe” (i.e. Kṣatriyas), and suggests that the indulgence may have originated in principles similar to those by which, according both to the civil and English laws, soldiers are permitted to make nuncupative wills, and to dispose of their property without those forms which the law requires in other cases.

John D. Mayne, dealing with the question in his Treatise on Hindu Law and Usage, 1878, compares the rākṣasa and gāndharva forms of marriage. He considers the latter is better than the former in that it assumes a state of society in which a friendly, though perhaps stealthy, intercourse was possible between man and woman before their union, and in which the inclinations of the female were consulted. He points out that in neither form of marriage was there anything to show that permanence was a necessary element in either transaction (pp. 66 , 67). Speaking further on the subject Mayne says (p. 70) that the validity of a gāndharva marriage was established in court in 1817, but that the definition seems to imply nothing more or less than fornication.

Sripati Roy in his Customs and Customary Law in British India. Tagore Law Lectures, 1908, 1911, deals with the subject on pp. 288, 289.

He states that the form of marriage is still prevalent among rajahs and chiefs, and that the ceremony consists in an exchange of garlands and flowers between the bride and bridegroom, without a nuptial tie, homam, and without the customary token of legal marriage, called pustelu, being tied round the neck of the bride. This form seems very similar to the svayarnvara mentioned twice in the Ocean of Story, in which a garland is thrown on the neck of the favoured suitor. Readers will also remember the incident in the story of “Nala and Damayantī.”

In conclusion I would quote the classical example of the gāndharva form of marriage which occurs in the Mahābhārata (section lxxiii, “Adiparva”), where King Duṣyanta tries to persuade Princess Śakuntalā with these words:

“Let the whole of my kingdom be thine to-day, O beautiful one! Come to me, O timid one, wedding me, O beautiful one, according to the gāndharva form! O thou of tapering thighs! of all forms of marriage, the gāndharva one is regarded as the first.”

Śakuntalā demurs and speaks of fetching her father; whereupon King Duṣyanta quotes Manu on the eight forms of marriage and shows she need have no apprehensions on the step he wants her to take as it is sanctioned by religion. She is persuaded, but stipulates that her son shall become the heir-apparent. This being agreed upon, the marriage takes place there and then. The king departs with a promise to send for Śakuntalā later.

Her father, Kaṇva, returns, and Śakuntalā, filled with a sense of shame, does not go out to meet him. Her father, however, by his spiritual knowledge, already knows all that has happened, and addresses her:

“Amiable one, what hath been done by thee to-day in secret, without having waited for me—viz. intercourse with man—hath not been destructive of thy virtue. Indeed, union according to the gāndharva form of a wishful woman with a man of sexual desire, without mantras of any kind, it is said, is the best for Kṣatriyas...”

(translated by P. C. Roy, new edition, 1919, etc., part ii, pp. 150, 151, 152).

The Gandharvas are described in Appendix I of this volume. — n.m.p.