MARRIAGES

By Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Mahaswamiji

All dharmas depend on women for their maintenance streemoolah sarva dharmah. It is sad to see girls nowadays remaining unmarried till a late age, due to the indigence of their parents, to the exorbitant demands of dowry, or due to the inability to get proper bridegrooms. The Parsi community has an organization to help the less rich in the community. It is desirable to organize a Bank to aid the marriage of unmarried girls belonging to poor families, who have attained puberty, but whom their parents are obliged to keep at home, because of their sheer inability to give them away in marriage. It is also necessary to perform all marriages as economically as possible, without, however, omitting the prescribed religious rites. It should be our endeavor to avoid wasteful expenditure in marriages as well as in other ceremonial occasions.