Journal of South Asia Women Studies

In many traditional societies, the initiation of a marriage is accompanied by some transfer of goods or services. When these transfers are made from brides and their families to grooms and their families, they are broadly classified as dowries. A transfer in the opposite direction--that is, from grooms and their families to brides and their families--is generally called a bride price. The nature of marriage transactions in India has been theoretically linked to the inheritance system. For example, dowry is interpreted as the pre-mortem inheritance of the bride, passed to her at the time of her marriage. Hindu custom historically prohibited women from inheriting land, particularly when there were male heirs. This principal is a part of the Mitakshara tradition of Hindu law, which prevails throughout India except in the states of Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Northern parts of Orissa.1 In India, social norms make it extremely rare for women to receive real (immovable) property. Dowry is subsequently viewed as a pre-mortem inheritance of a female progeny and consists only of movable property (Sharma 1984; Krishnamurthy 1981).

However, for this view to work dowry must be the general form of marriage payment and it must represent wealth that stays under the control of the bride. Neither of these prerequisites is completely met throughout India. First, other forms of marriage transactions and marriages involving no payment are statistically preponderant in India (Agarwal, 1995). Second, in many instances, a large part of a woman's dowry does not remain under her control (Miller, 1980). Moreover, dowry does not represent a fixed share of a particular divisible estate; it differs in value and timing from the male inheritance. Dowry for women is linked to marriage, without a marriage there is no dowry, while inheritance for men is not. Most importantly, dowry continues to be given in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in spite of their gender-neutral inheritance laws.2Therefore, when considering dowry as a marriage payment, the question remains "What do the bride's parents pay for in the marriage market?"