Behzad Hosseinzadeh; Hassan Rezai Baghbidi
Abstract
The present essay, entitled ‘Swayamwara: A Marital Custom of the Indo-European Warrior Class’, examines some Indian, Iranian, and Greek literary texts, while outlining a supposed custom of the warrior class in the above-mentioned cultures. The custom is referred to in classical Sanskrit texts ...
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The present essay, entitled ‘Swayamwara: A Marital Custom of the Indo-European Warrior Class’, examines some Indian, Iranian, and Greek literary texts, while outlining a supposed custom of the warrior class in the above-mentioned cultures. The custom is referred to in classical Sanskrit texts as ‘swayamwara’, which means ‘self-choice’. One of the two forms of the custom, which in the present essay will be called Form B (or ‘swayamwara by free will’), comprises a free-will choice by a princess or a warrior-class girl of her husband from among a gathering of noble suitors assembled for this very purpose. There are both explicit and implicit hints in the examined texts that the custom was that of the warrior class while there is, as well, evidence to the contrary. I have tried to reconcile these apparent contradictions.
