The document discusses the nature of marriage in Hinduism from ancient times to the present. It describes how marriage evolved from a state of sex promiscuity among early humans to an institution regulated through laws. In ancient Hindu scriptures like Manu Smriti, marriage was seen as making the wife half of the husband and establishing roles and duties of husband and wife. Marriage was viewed as both a sacred sacrament and a lifelong bond. However, in practice polygamy and easy divorce for men undermined the sanctity of marriage for women. The modern concept of marriage as a legal contract emerged with industrialization to establish free consent and remove practices like polygamy and concubinage. The Hindu Marriage Act of

1. Nature of marriage
Submitted by:
Mandeep
B.A.LL.B. 2 nd yr
MITS

2. Index
Marriage
under Hindu
marriage
Act,1955
as contract
sacrament
Evolution

3. Evolution of the Institution of
marriage
•Sex promiscuity was the
rule among the primitive
men
•Paternity could not be
determined as sex
relationship remained
unregulated
•man’s quest to know
paternity of child lie the
seeds of the institution of
marriage

4. concept of marriage
• Wife becomes • The wife is • The husband is
a Paturnuvrate verily half of known as
• i.e., she should the husband. bhartri or pati
follow the Man is only as he is to
same principle half, not support his
as her complete until wife and wife is
husband. She is he marries known as jaya
ardhagini (half
of man)
Manu Satpatha
Shastra
Smriti Brahmana

5. • Acc. to this wife • The wife is said • It declared that
is source of to be grihini mutual fidelity
Dharma, Artha, (the lady of the b/w husband
and kama, and house), sachiva and wife is the
she is also the (wise highest Dharma
source of counsellor),
Moksha sakhi (friend)
Taittiriya
Mahabharta Ramyana
Samhita

6. Marriage as Sacrament
•Marriage is one of the essential
samskaras (sacrament) for every Hindu
•Even in the patriarchal society of the
Rig Vedic Hindus, marriage was
considered as a sacramental union
• it continued to be so in the entire
Hindu period, and even in our
contemporary world most Hindus
regard their marriage as a sacrament

7. Hindus conceived of marriage as a
sacrament union which implies several
things:
First, the
Marriage is
marriage b/w obligatory,for
Wife is not
man and getting son,for merely a
woman is of discharging his grihapatni but
religious or debt to his also
holy character ancestors and for dharmapatni
and not a performing and
religious and sadhaharmini
contractual spiritual duties
union

8. Such marriage It implies that The
can’t take place it is a sacramental
without the permanent union also
performance of union. It is a tie means that it is
religious and which once an eternal
spiritual duties tied cnt be union
untied

9. Hindu marriage was a sacrament in the sense that a
wife could never ask for divorce or for another
husband even if her husband was a lunatic, impotent
etc
As regards the husband, he could always mock at this
sacrament with impunity and arrogance by taking
another wife with similar sacramental fold; and he
could do so as many times as he liked
Thus marriage as an exclusive and sacramental union
also gave birth to:
Polygamy concubin prostitut
age ion

10. Marriage as a contract
• The modern concept of marriage as
a contract is an outcome of industrial
revolution
•Acc. to the modern era, the highest
human and social relationship that
man has known, i.e., marriage, too,
must be squarely based on free
volition of individuals
• And to remove the polygamy,
concubinage it was made a contract

11. Similarities between Hindu Marriage
and a contract
Hindu Marriage Act,1955 Contract Act,1872
 Sec. 5 deals with the  Sec. 11 of this Act deals
conditions of marriage with the competency of
o Mental capacity parties to contract
o Competency  Sec 12 deals with mental
o Free consent of both the capacity of the parties
parties to marriage  Sec 14 deals with the free
consent of the parties
By the above mentioned similarities, we can
conclude that marriage according to the Hindu
Marriage Act is more a contract than a sacrament

12. Thanks