Given the traditional belief that a Hindu woman's primary function is that of a wife and mother, being a widow is seen as the worst tr...

  Vivaha ("strengthening") Samskara.   The fifteenth of the life cycle ceremonies (samskaras) is when a man and a woman become...

  Svayamvara is a Sanskrit word that means "I am the Lord." (“self-choice”) In Hindu mythology, a kind of marriage in which the br...

   A marriage in which the wife comes from a group with higher social status than the husband. Such marriages were strictly forbidden in the...