Types of weddings mentioned in the ancient Scriptures like the Dharamashastra, Naradasmriti (a part of Dharmashastra) and Manusmriti

First is Brahma Vivaha, in this type of marriage a boy who has completed the first stage of his life, Brahmacharaya searches for a suitable spouse. And the bride also makes sure the groom is well educated and is well-versed in vedas. In this marriage it is the groom/groom’s family searching for a bride. This type of marriage is considered the best type of marriage out of the eight types of marriages.

Second is Daiva Vivaha, this is also a righteous marriage, or thought so. And this line is said because there is a very contrasting view of this marriage in people. And a point to be noted is that it was only to be practised by Brahmins.
In this form of marriage a Brahmin performs a ceremony and in the form of ‘Dakshina’ the family offers their daughter to the Brahmin. This is said to be an act of merit, and counted as the second most meritorious act to be done by someone. It can eliminate sins of seven generations of a family but it is also not continued today even after such benefits because, it was practised so that a family not able to meet the expense of a ceremony or can't find a suitable groom for their daughter. This was the type of marriage that Shree Ram’s elder sister Shanta had.
My comment on this would be that whoever thought of it is pretty sharp but using their mind for all the wrong reasons. An suitable idiom for this would be Andho mein Kanna raja.

Third is Arsha Vivah, In this type of marriage the groom most likely sages, brought gifts in exchange of the bride's hand in marriage. But Arsha is said to be derived from the word sage and can also mean wise men. This type of marriage is also considered righteous. The gift is said to have been bulls, cows or a pair of cattles.
Many people also criticise this type of marriage, saying it is like a transaction but that’s all negative people speaking. If we look at this positively we can see it is to show how much the bride means to the groom as at that time the cattle were very important and it is equivalent to giving away your source of living. This was practised so the groom can fulfill his obligations as grihasthashrama.

The fourth is Prajapatyavivaha is a righteous marriage. The girl's father gives her hand in marriage to a bridegroom, treating him with respect, and blessing them with the following words: 'May both of you perform your religious duties. In such a marriage, the bride's father goes in search of a groom, rather than the other way around.
It is just the reverse of Brahma marriage, so some also consider it inferior to it. It can be inferior in the way as it’s the bride's family searching since the bride's family is to be kept in high regard and usually the groom’s family reaches out instead of the other way around.

Fifth is the long awaited Gandharva Vivah. This is the love marriage we all know of and have heard of in the love stories of the gods or some ancient texts. We all know of the love marriage between Shree Krishna and Mata Rukmini. And there are many other tales too like Arjun and Subhadra. In all these tales the bride and groom have known each other and love each other. They also get married of their own accord with/without the consent of their families. In Gandharva Vivah the bride and groom no consultation of one's family members or the performance of ritual ceremonies takes place. The famous marriage between Shakuntala and King Dushyanta is such.
It is generally considered to be permissible to the people of the Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra varnas according to Smriti texts. It is cohabitation that arises out of the mutual love shared between a youth and a maiden, where the primary purpose is sexual intercourse. It is sometimes considered a non-righteous type of marriage.

Now comes the non-righteous types of marriages which are only given any place in any ancient texts to do justice to the victims of the evil schemes.

Asura Vivah. In this type of it is basically arsha vivah but because the groom and the family may disregard the consent and autonomy. And it involves a transaction between the family or kinsmen of the bride and groom where the groom gives how much he thinks is the price of the bride. This is condemned as the lowest marriage because of the points listed above.
Asura vivah, though not mentioned by any sages or prominent figures in Hinduism, there are records of it happening in lower castes or classes. It may still be practiced in present or also continued in future as many people think of this as the ideal because of their inferior view of a daughter being a burden to be thrown at the first chance given without caring if it's their own blood involved. Pretty disgusting tbh.

The Rakshasavivaha is a non-righteous form of marriage. In this type of marriage the bride is abducted by force and her family slain. This marriage is not done by consent or blessing of any of the bride’s family. This marriage is listed as a grave sin in the ancient texts, and punishable by law in the present. Mostly done by Kshtriyas.

Paishacha Vivah the lowest of low marriages, only considered as marriage to
provide legal protection to the victim or any child born from such an union. In this type of union a man by using tricks to rape a woman who is asleep, unconscious or mentally disabled to understand the deed done to her. This was considered as marriage in olden times so to protect the honour of the woman.


There are many things to be discussed on this topic. The topic of dowry is discussed almost in every family everyday. It is the root cause of many crimes against women because of greed and people say why such a practice was made to make the already hard life of a woman more troubled. But if you notice in the above it does not mention any types of gift or anything given by the bride's family to the groom . In actuality the groom was the one who had to give something to take the bride’s hand in marriage.
Mata Sita didn’t carry any dowry when she was married, nor did Mata Parvati.
But there is a practice of giving voluntary gifts to the bride by her family, it is called ‘Stridhan’ the money or property of said woman. Stridhan consisted of voluntary gifts (jewelry, clothing, household items, land) given by the bride's parents to the bride herself, to be her personal, independent property for financial security in her new home. It can also count as an inheritance. It was to make the woman independent in the patriarchal society. Its origins can be traced back to Vedic Period (around 1800 BCE).
The practice was also linked to the concept of kanyadan ("gift of the bride"), a meritorious act where the bride's father gifted his daughter to the groom, sometimes accompanied by a dakshina (token gift) to the groom.
The transformation of this ritual to sin was gradual but not prominent but it was overturned when Britishers began their rule in India. They banned women from owning any form of property and this move made the women more disadvantaged and completely dependent on men for everything.

The practice of ‘Swayamvar’ was done mainly by the Kshatriyas. In this type of marriage the bride is free to choose her groom from the group of assembled suitors or by issuing a challenge. And the suitor who will complete the given task may have the bride’s hand in marriage. The infamous Swayamvar of Mata Sita is an example or we can talk of the Swayamvar of Draupadi. Even Mata Laxmi had a Swayamvar even though she knew who she wanted to marry.

There is also a topic which has risen to fame recently , the topic of Same-sex marriage. Now many people are not as concerned with the gender of their partner but many are against this saying it is a sin but is it really?

After much research it was found that in Hinduism it is not a sin to have same sex relationship on the contrary there are many examples of gender fluidity, transgender and also mentions of same sex marriage.

There is record of a same sex relationship in Rig Veda, Mitra-Varuna. They are said to be the divine same sex couple. There are also mentions of Hari-Hara, the union of Shiv and Narayan. There mentions of it in ‘Kamasutra’ especially in the section talking of Gandharva Vivah. And it can be said to be the best kind of marriage as it is based on mutual love between both parties.
An example of gender-fluidity is Ila who alternates between male and female. Shikhandi is first born as female then later as male. And there are many stories of Lord Krishna and Narayan in female form too. Lord Shiva once took the form of a woman to meet Lord Krishna and that form of his is called Gopishwar Mahadev. And we can’t forget the world class beau Mohini. The female form of Arjuna ‘Brihannala’ is also an example of gender fluidity and that it is not counted as sin in Hinduism.

Later in Dharma Shastra many have interpreted that it condemns same sex relationships but after decoding and studies it was known that the rule was that if an union of any form harmed the person or the surrounding it is to be counted as Adharma not explicitly or implicitly implying of same sex union.

So , it can be said that with time many of the teachings have changed so much that we don’t even know what our own religion is about or what it really means. We just follow the crowd and become the flock of sheep steered in the direction the person of power and knowledge wants us too because we let them do it. We laugh at our religion but are amazed when the same is written in other’s. We are interested and follow the trends the traditions others have imposed on us but our own traditions are a joke to us, our religious books are a hoax to us.

We on our own are making the beautiful part of our tradition and our history die, while helping others thrive. All because we think it's not cool.