Marriage (also called matrimony or wedlock) is a social union or legal contract between people called spouses that establishes rights and obligations between the spouses, and their children, and between the spouses and their in-laws.
The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but it is principally an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged.
When defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural universal. In many cultures, marriage is formalized via a wedding ceremony. (Haviland, William A.; Prins, Harald et.al.2011)
It is stated to be a system through which, the interpersonal relationships normally intimate are acknowledged in a range methods relying on the tradition or subculture in which it’s found.
And marriages are given foremost value as they are thought-about to be the principle trigger for hereditary successions. These are carried out on sure rituals and customs. In conventional societies, spouses typically stay with the mother and father or reside in the identical housing compound. In times of problem, the couple can depend on the assistance of their parents and in-legal guidelines for bodily, emotional and financial help.(wordpress.com 2007)
Marriage changes men more pervasively and more profoundly than it changes women. The best way to put it is, marriage is for men what motherhood is for women. Not only does it cause them to grow up, but it becomes the deepest human bond they are likely to develop. (Scott Williams, 2008 )
In the Vedic society marriage was regarded as indissoluble by human endeavor. Among the Smritis those of Narada and Parasara hold that marriage could be ended on the ground of husband’s impotency, while the later Dharmasastras and Puranas (200-1200 A.D.) forbade woman’s claim for divorce even in the wake of desertion by her husband.
The controversial and popular code of Manu while repudiating the woman’s right for divorce declared that a wife could remarry if the previous marriage was not consummated.
The conditions, during the Buddhist period were more or less the same.
During the medieval period, the steady decline of egalitarian and progressive ethos in the Indian society resulted in denial of leverage to women.
In the later centuries the British India Government, supported by enlightened Indians introduced several social reforms in the form of legislation that gave an impetus to the process of social change.