CHAPTER I.
Solicitude of parents to marry their daughters.
It is, I think, a matter of common knowledge that Hindu parents have a great desire to see their girls married as early as possible. This hankering after the marriage of children probably owes its existence to the religious faith that every person must be married so as to be able to perform the religious duties more efficaciously. It is, perhaps, also due to the natural desire of procreation as well as to enjoy the Grihast Ashram or conjugal life. Lastly, it, perhaps, owes its origin in the fact that the best walk of life for women is the married life.
It may not be out of place to mention here an instance of this solicitude which I have noticed in common parlance among women on the subject of marriage. In the meeting of Hindu ladies the mother of an unmarried girl of
