The marriage of Hindu women by Muhammadan emperors commenced with the father of Firoz Shah, whose mother Naila was the daughter of raja Malla Bhatti. Howell states that when the Hindu rajas submitted to Timur, it was stipulated that the emperor should marry a daughter of Jet Singles house, and that the head of the house should be governor of Bengal.
About A.D. 1306, Kaula Devi, wife of the raja of Gujerat, had been captured in Baglana during her husband's flight, and was carried to Ala-ud Din's haram. She had great influence over him, and induced him to make efforts to capture her daughter Dewala Devi. This was accomplished, and her beauty made such an impression on the king's eldest son, Khizr Klan, that he soon after married her. Their loves are the subject of a celebrated Persian poem by Amir Khusru.
Jodh Bai, daughter of Bahara Mal, raja of Amber (now Jeypore), was the emperor Akbar's wife, and she was the mother of Salim, who became the emperor Jahangir. The marriage.of Salim with the daughter of raja Bhagwan Doss, son of Bahrtra Mal, was performed according to Hindu form at the raja's house, and in the presence of Akbar. Other Muhammadan emperors had Hindu wives, but no Hindu was permitted to marry a Muhammadan girl. Jahangir said, Marrying a Hindwani is not so bad, but to give one's daughter to a Hindu! Lord protect us against the machinations of the evil one The practice of the Muhammadan emperors marrying Hindu women was a matter of policy, calculated to preserve a good understanding.
In Egypt, girls are prepared for marriage with a very great deal of ceremony. There are tire women who make the beautifying of brides their special profession. On the wedding morning the bride is dressed in her bridal robes ; her hair is plaited with tho Grecian plait, small pieces of gold-leaf are stuck on her forehead and on her breast; care is taken not to conceal any of the stars or spots tattooed on her face and chest in infancy ; a lino of blue dots encircling the lips is sometimes seen, and a spot on the chin is very common. A little rouge is added to heighten the colour of the cheeks where necessary.
In British India, the descendants of all the Musalinau races—Arab, Iranian, Turanian, Mon g,ol, and Hindu converts—intermarry. Rarely a Christian man and a Muhammadan woman.
The Koran of the Muliammadans enjoins the strictest seclusion of women. They aro prohibited from appearing unveiled before any but very near relations, children, or eunuchs. But elderly women of the poorer classes, married or widows, appear abroad, do all the marketing and other out-of-door domestic work, and without veils of any kind. This practice of seclusion is followed also by the Rajputs of rank and the Namburi Brahmans. But with the mass of the Hindu people, the women attend to all ordinary in-door and out-of-door duties, drawing water at the well, obtaining the daily bazar supplies, and the women of the agricultural and gardening and labouring races of the Aryans and non-Aryans share their husband's toils.
Erroneous physiological notions of the races in Central Asia and China lead some husbands to marry more than one wife, or to have haram or slave women in their hoihes, and it is this which keeps up slavery there. The Mnhanunadan haram custom is given in the rule for the Jews, Judges v. 28 30 ; Deuteronomy xxi. 10-13: `When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God bath delivered them into thine hands, and thou bast taken them captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and bast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy ; then thou shalt bring her home to thine house ; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails ; and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month : and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.' In British India, the rule which Europeans affects the European community is the resolution of the Governor-General in Council, dated the 8th October 1852, which prescribes that certificates of marriage should be transmitted to England in every case when either party to the marriage is what is commonly called a British subject, or the legitimate offspring of such a person ; and in other eases, whenever either party to the marriage desires it to be so transmitted. Subjects of foreign European states were provided for in 1854, when returns of births, deaths, and marriages of European Christians, of all denomina tions, throughout British India, were prescribed by the Governor-General in Council. Every marriage between British people, or in which one of the contracting parties is of legitimate extraction from English parents, has become capable of proof by -simply referring to the Registrar - General in London. • In the old Roman forms of marriage, con farreatio was the most sacred, and the bride and bridegroom were joined together by the l'ontifex Maximus in a set form of words, in the presence of at least ten witnesses, the contracting parties having to partake of a cake made of salt, water, and flour, called far. Of that panic farreus, the wedding cake of the British is the relic, and their bridesmaids and groomsmen have their origin in the ten witnesses. Amongst the Romano!, special honour was given to the children of such marriages, and from amongst them were chosen the flamens of Jupiter and the vestal virgins.