27 Oct 2009 Vrindavan, India
Category: Caste System
Yesterday I wrote that parents who want to arrange their son’s or daughter’s marriage look for someone from the same caste. I wrote about arranged marriages already a few times in my diary but not about this aspect yet. It is often the whole family who tries to couple the young single women and men and they talk with others to find a girl or a boy who could be right. But it is not only the caste, there are even sub-castes which they consider.
If you have a closer look at the personal ad of which you saw a picture in yesterday’s diary, you see that the boy is specified as ‘Sanadhya-Vashisht Brahmin‘. Brahmin is the caste, so they are looking for a Brahmin girl. But she also has to be Sanadhya, which is the boy’s subcaste. And then the boy is also ‘Vashisht’ which is the branch of a family. There are a certain number of different families in the sub-caste and they marry among each other, not in the same family, to avoid any kind of incest. So the girl has to be Brahmin, Sanadhya and not Vashisht.
You see, depending on the attitude of the family there is a very narrow selection of possible partners. And what happens if the child wants to marry someone from another caste because they fell in love with each other?
I told you about the Arya Samaj and how they condemn the caste system. They have temples all over India and this is where those couples go, if they are really determined to marry, with the consent of their family or without. In the temples of the Arya Samaj they can marry regardless their caste and they get a certificate which is officially accepted.
It takes lots of courage to go against the wish of the family and the society, marrying someone from another caste but love has a strong power and I hope many young people will go with their love and not with the antiquated belief of different classes of people.
Tags:: Love, Marriage, Society , Arya samaj, Caste, Temples
7 Comments
Posted By Swami Balendu
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Is it very hard to get married without the consent of the family? I mean, will most people with the power to marry refuse to marry you?
Reply By Abby Merick on October 28, 2010 02:22
like like like like like like like like like like lol like :D
Reply By Amber Cutshaw on July 21, 2010 07:18
I so so agree. In todays world people often judge others by how much money they have, nationality, color, caste, status and more. This is refreshing. Its the character of the person and may love ALWAYS win. Thank you as always swami.
Reply By Davina Severgnini on July 21, 2010 07:17
You look so cool Swamiji! Little furry face...maybe to keep you warmer? Getting cold here! Rainy, but both Su and I miss you all so much and we're also doing well ourselves, but am still homesick!!! :-)
Reply By Joanna Roos on July 21, 2010 07:15
Today was the last day of the school year 11/12. The children got their report cards, the olde...
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