The ‘Orthodoxisation’ of the Ancient Indian Marriage by Bride Price (śulka). Insights into the Ārṣa and Āsura Forms of Marriage in and out of the Dharmaśāstric Tradition

Among the eight forms of marriage described by the Dharmaśāstric texts, two are strictly interrelated with each other, i.e., Ārṣa and Āsura, both linked to a metaphorical (by giving one or two pairs of oxen to the maiden’s father) or actual purchase of the bride (by exchanging wealth) and respectively considered legitimate (Ārṣa) and illegitimate (Āsura). This paper analyses the formation process of these two marriage forms, which derive from a previous – single and legitimate – marriage by bride price (śulka). The Dharmaśāstric theorisation of marriage rites represents a frame that does not correspond to what can be reconstructed of marriage from earlier Vedic texts, where marriage by purchase is described in positive terms. The split into Ārṣa and Āsura marriages, which took place in the Late Vedic period, can be interpreted as a Brahmanical attempt to orthodoxise marriage by purchase by substituting the bride price with a ritual gift (Ārṣa) and, at the same time, to condemn its oldest form by declaring it as illegitimate (Āsura). However, there is evidence from Dharmaśāstric and non-Dharmaśāstric (i.e., epic and Purāṇic) texts as well as – even though with minor relevance – from Megasthenes’ account of Ancient Indian marriage that the sale of daughters continued to be a practised custom and, despite the hermeneutical efforts of some passages (e.g., ĀpDh II, 13, 11), the Ārṣa marriage was actually felt as a purchase.