When a girl of the same caste, and a virgin, is married in accordance
with the precepts of Holy Writ, the results of such an union are: the
acquisition of Dharma and Artha, offspring, affinity, increase of
friends, and untarnished love. For this reason a man should fix his
affections upon a girl who is of good family, whose parents are alive,
and who is three years or more younger than himself. She should be born
of a highly respectable family, possessed of wealth, well connected, and
with many relations and friends. She should also be beautiful, of a good
disposition, with lucky marks on her body, and with good hair, nails,
teeth, ears, eyes, and breasts, neither more nor less than they ought to
be, and no one of them entirely wanting, and not troubled with a sickly
body. The man should, of course, also possess these qualities himself.
But at all events, says Ghotakamukha, a girl who has been already joined
with others (_i.e._, no longer a maiden) should never be loved, for it
would be reproachable to do such a thing.
Now in order to bring about a marriage with such a girl as described
above, the parents and relations of the man should exert themselves, as
also such friends on both sides as may be desired to assist in the
matter. These friends should bring to the notice of the girl's parents,
the faults, both present and future, of all the other men that may wish
to marry her, and should at the same time extol even to exaggeration
all the excellencies, ancestral, and paternal, of their friend, so as to
endear him to them, and particularly to those that may be liked by the
girl's mother. One of the friends should also disguise himself as an
astrologer and declare the future good fortune and wealth of his friend
by showing the existence of all the lucky omens[43] and signs,[44] the
good influence of planets, the auspicious entrance of the sun into a
sign of the Zodiac, propitious stars and fortunate marks on his body.
Others again should rouse the jealousy of the girl's mother by telling
her that their friend has a chance of getting from some other quarter
even a better girl than hers.
A girl should be taken as a wife, as also given in marriage, when
fortune, signs, omens, and the words[45] of others are favourable, for,
says Ghotakamukha, a man should not marry at any time he likes. A girl
who is asleep, crying, or gone out of the house when sought in marriage,
or who is betrothed to another, should not be married. The following
also should be avoided: