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[1] of others are favorable, 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.
- One who is kept concealed.
- One who has an ill-sounding name.
- One who has her nose depressed.
- One who has her nostril turned up.
- One who is formed like a male.
- One who is bent down.
- One who has crooked thighs.
- One who has a projecting forehead.
- One who has a bald head.
- One who does not like purity.
- One who has been polluted by another.
- One who is affected with the Gulma.[2]
- One who is disfigured in any way.
- One who has fully arrived at puberty.
- One who is a friend.
- One who is a younger sister.
- One who is a Varshakari.[3]
In the same way a girl who is called by the name of one of the twenty-seven stars, or by the name of a tree, or of a river, is considered worthless, as also a girl whose name ends in “r” or “l.” But some authors say that prosperity is gained only by marrying that girl to whom one becomes attached, and that therefore no other girl but the one who is loved should be married by anyone.
When a girl becomes marriageable her parents should dress her smartly, and should place her where she can be
- ↑ Before anything is begun it is a custom to go early in the morning to a neighbor’s house, and overhear the first words that may be spoken in his family, and according as the words heard are of good or bad import, so draw an inference as to the success or failure of the undertaking.
- ↑ A disease consisting of any glandular enlargement in any part of the body.
- ↑ A woman, the palms of whose hands and the soles of whose feet are always perspiring.
