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Hinduism - What Is A Bride Price?

   





The amount of money given to the bride's family by the groom's family as a condition of marriage. 



The asura marriage, one of eight authorized types of marriage in the Dharma Shastras (treatises on religious obligation), is defined by the exchange of money for the bride (dharma). 




Because it implies selling one's offspring, this kind of marriage is deemed aprashasta (“reprehensible”). 

Despite the fact that it occurs in contemporary India, groups that practice this style have a poor social standing. 



Giving brideprice in contemporary times implies that the bride's family is entitled to compensate for the loss of a wage worker, indicating that her labor is required by the family. 




The Brahma marriage, on the other hand, is a higher-status marriage in which the bride and her riches (in the form of a dowry) are transferred to the groom's family with the assumption that both families have enough money that her paid work is superfluous.




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