Family is one of the most important social institutions. It is the most pervasive and universal social institution. They usually share common residence, at least for some part of their lives. Thirdly, there is the relational aspect among the members. Members have reciprocal rights and duties towards each other. Let us its definition given by different sociologists.

• K. Davis defines, family as a group of persons whose relations to one another are based upon consanguinity and who are, therefore, kin to one another.
• Mack and Young define it as the basic primary group and the natural matrix of personality.
• Clare defines it as a system of relationships existing between parents and children.
• Maclver and Page define it as a group defined by a sex relationship, sufficiently precise and enduring to provide for the procreation and upbringing of children.
• Nimkoff defines it as a more or less durable association of husband and wife with or without children, or a man and a woman alone with children.
• Burgess and Locke define it as a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood or adoption; consisting a single household, interacting and intercommunicating with each other in their social roles of husband and wife, mother and father, son and daughter, brother and sister creating a common culture.
• Eliott & Merril defines it as the biological social unit composed of husband, wife, and children.
• Bureau of Census (U.S.A.) defines it as a social unit of two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption and having a shared commitment to the mutual relationship.

Characteristics of Family:

Universality:

Family is found in each stage of society and everywhere. There is no society without it. It is found in some form or the other, in all types of societies whether primitive or modern.  There is not a single man who does not belong to one or other kind of family. It is the most pervasive and universal social institution.

Mating Relationship:

Sex relationship should be there between husband and wife. This relationship may be of short one or endures for a lifetime. According to Maclver if this relationship breaks then the family slowly breaks.

Form of Marriage:

The mating relationship is established through the institution of marriage. Marriage may be monogamous or polygamous or polyandrous and in any form.  The society regulates sexual behaviour between opposite sexes through the institution of marriage. Without marriage, family is not possible. Partners may be selected by parents or by the elders, or choice may be left to the wishes of the individual concerned. It may be a love marriage or arranged marriage.

A System of Nomenclature:

Every family is known by a particular name. Thus its members are known by the nomenclature or by a distinctive name. It has own system of reckoning descent. In India, it is usually referred as ‘surname’ while in the US it is referred as ‘family name’. In patrilineal families, descent is recognized through the male line. Similarly, in matrilineal families descent is recognized through the mother’s line. Today, it is quite common that, after marriage, a girl retains her maiden surname or adds the surname of her husband to her maiden name.

Financial and Economic Provision:

Every family needs an economic provision to satisfy the economic needs of its members. Its members more or less share with each other. Usually, the head of the family carries on certain profession and earns to maintain the family. He/she tries to make all possible arrangement to provide economic comfort to the members.

Common Habitation:

Each family has a common and more or less fixed home in which all the members can live together. After the marriage the wife may reside in husband’s parental home or the husband may reside in wife’s parental home or she may stay in her parental home to which the husband pays occasional visits or both of them may establish a separate home of their own. A living or dwelling place is necessary to bear and care child. Childbearing and child-rearing cannot be adequately performed in the absence of home.

Emotional Basis:

The biological relationship and mutual affection create an emotional bond among the members. Every family is based on human impulses of mating, procreation, motherly devotion and parental love and care. The love between husband and wife, parents and children makes it an institution of self-sacrifice.

Limited Size:

The family is very small in size and the smallest primary group. It includes husband and wife and the persons who are born in it or are adopted. It is the nucleus of all social group. Due to small and limited size, the relations among the members are direct, intimate, close, personal and permanent.

Closed Group:

The membership to the family is only through birth, marriage, or adoption only. Hence it is a closed group.

Sense of Security and Responsibility:

The members of the family have a deep sense of responsibility and obligation for the rest of the members. Due to this sense of responsibility, all the member discharge their duties. This sense of responsibility, cooperation, and obligation provides security to members.

Educative Role:

Family is the earliest social environment which surrounds trains and educates the child.  It is a mechanism of social control and provides early education. It shapes the personality and moulds the character of its members. It emotionally conditions the child. When one is small he does not know what’s wrong or right. It helps everyone to learn lessons of socialization.

Social Regulation:

Every family has its own customs, traditions rules and regulations. As an important agent of socialization, the family teaches the norms and culture to its members. The family is peculiarly guarded both by social taboos and by legal regulations. The society takes the precaution of safeguard this organization from any possible breakdown, by divorce, desertion or separation.

Persistence Coupled With Change:

As an institution it is permanent. When a couple after marriage settle in an independent residence, the family continues to exist with other members. Thus the family is permanent as an institution. At the same time, it is temporary and transitional. Because the structure of the family changes over time in terms of size, composition, and status of persons. It undergoes constant changes due to births and deaths in the family.

Indian Legal System > Civil Laws > Family Laws > Family > A Family and its Characteristics

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The Hindu marriage is based upon the extinction of the dominion of the father over his daughter and the creation of the relationship of husband and wife by a religious function. The religious ceremony is essential for all forms of marriage. The mode of extinction of the dominion of the father differs in the various forms of marriage. Prior to the enactment of the Hindu Marriage Act, there were eight forms of marriage, four approved and four unapproved. Thus there were eight forms of marriages of which, four Brahma, Daiva, Arsha, and Prajapatya are approved and remaining four Asura, Gandharva, Rakshasa, and Paisacha are unapproved.

Approved Forms of Marriage:

Brahma form:

The gift of a daughter (kanya danam), after decking her with ornaments and honouring her with jewels to a man learned in the Vedas and of good character, whom the father of the girl himself invites, is called the “Brahma marriage”. In this form of marriage, the bride figured as an object of ‘dana’ or gift by her father or guardian to the bridegroom. In this form, the father invites and receives respectfully the bridegroom and makes a gift of his daughter, thereby putting an end to his dominion over daughter. The important feature of this form is that the parents of the bride do not receive any consideration for giving the girl in marriage. It was believed then that the son born of a Brahma marriage redeems from sin, ten ancestors, ten descendants and himself.

Brahma form of marriage is said to be the best and mostly practiced throughout India. It is considered an advanced stage of social progress.  In the Brahma form of marriage social decency was fully maintained and the religious rites were fully observed. In a Brahma form of marriage, when the woman died, her property devolved upon the legal heirs of the husband, in the absence of the husband and children.

Daiva form:

The Daiva form of marriage was slightly different from the Brahma form of marriage in the sense that the suitor was an official priest. Qualities like good character learned in the Vedas or good family background was not part of selection criteria.  This form of marriage is exclusively for the Brahmins because the Brahmins can only officiate in the sacrifices, as priests. In this form of marriage, the damsel is given to a person who operates as a priest in a sacrifice performed by the father, in lieu of the fee due to the priest. It is inferior to the Brahma because the father derives a benefit, which is not deemed reprehensible. It was believed then that the son born of such a marriage is said to redeem from sin seven parental ascendants and seven male descendants and himself.

Arsha form:

In Arsha form of marriage, the bridegroom makes a present of a cow and a bull or two cows and two bulls to the bride’s father which is accepted for the religious purpose only. Arsha form of marriage symbolizes the pastoral stage of the Hindu society where cattle were considered indispensable. In this form of marriage, the present of a cow and a bull or two cows and two bulls constitute the price of the bride. The number of persons redeemed by the male offspring of such marriage is only six (three male descendants and three female ascendants)

Prajapatya form:

The very name Prajapatya indicates that the pair enters the solemn bond for repayment of debts or rinas (obligations) to Prajapati for procreation and upbringing of children. This form of marriage does not materially differ from the Brahma, but in this, the gift is made with condition that “May both of you perform together, your civil and religious duties”. This form of marriage is an orthodox form where the parental approval figures and the economic complications of betrothal are bypassed.

Unapproved forms:

Asura form:

In the Asura form of marriage, the bride was given to the husband in payment of a consideration called ‘kanya sulkam” or bride-price.  This form of marriage was prevalent in ancient India when the bride was construed to be an article of merchandise.  This form of marriage is based on an agreement between two families as a commercial transaction. Thus in this form of marriage, the dominion of the father over the daughter ceases by his sale of the girl to the bridegroom. The acceptance of some consideration by the father for giving his daughter in marriage is the factor that stamps this marriage as one in the unapproved form.

In ‘Asura’ form of marriage, on the death of the wife, in the absence of her husband & Children, her property devolved upon her parental side.

Gandharva form:

The Gandharva marriage was the union of a man and a woman by mutual consent (love marriage). In this form, the bride with own consent gives herself away to the bridegroom. A minor girl is incompetent to contract this ‘Gandharva’ form of marriage as she is incapable of giving her consent. This form of marriage indicates that the parties must be adults so that they will be capable of sexual enjoyment. This form of marriage was practiced by the tribe called ‘Gandharva’ living on the slopes of the Himalayas. 

Rakshasa form:

This form of marriage may be described as marriage by capture, resembling the right of a victor to the person of the captive in war. This form of marriage was allowed only to the kshatriyas or military classes. Thus the forcible abduction of the bride from her paternal home is the essence of the Rakshasa form. This form of marriage is still practiced among certain classes of Gond tribals of Berar and Betul. In modern Indian society, this form of marriage has been banned, and its practice is a punishable offence under Section 366 of IPC.

Paisacha form:

It is the worst form of marriage among the Hindus. When the lover secretly embraces the damsel, either sleeping of flushed with strong liqueur, or disordered in her intellect, that sinful marriage, called paishacha is the eighth and the lowest form. This form of marriage is a punishable offence under the I.P.C. as rape as the principle of law holds that a culprit should not be allowed to be benefited for any wrong-doings caused by him.

In both Rakshasa and Paisacha, there is a subsequent marriage with sacred texts and it is the original mode of securing the maiden that stamps these marriages as ‘unapproved’. The difference between the ‘Paishacha’ and the ‘Rakshasa’ forms of marriage lies in the fact that whereas in Rakshasa form there is the scope of display of bravery and force at the same time, in the Paishacha form the maiden is taken by deception and fraud. The dominion of the father is completely undermined in the ‘Gandharva’, ‘Paishacha’ and ‘Rakshasa’ forms of marriage. 

The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 has not prescribed any particular form of marriage. It simply lays down the conditions for a valid marriage. The Act calls marriages solemnized under the Act as Hindu marriages which may be performed in accordance with the customary ceremonies prevalent in the community to which, the bride belongs. In the present Indian scenario, considering the socio-legal point of view, three forms of Hindu marriage appear to be existent. These are the Brahma, Asura and Gandharva forms of marriage. The higher caste Hindus solemnize the Brahma form of marriage in the most cultured form. The Asura form of marriage is commonly practised among the lower castes and the Gandharva marriage is gaining momentum among the modern youths in the form of love marriage.

Previous Topic: Concept of Marriage in Hinduism

Conditions For Marriage in Old Hindu Texts

Indian Legal System > Civil Laws >Family Laws > The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 > Forms of Marriage

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