JOIN USThe system of arranged marriage is still prevalent in our subcontinent. Educated, accomplished, independent individuals often rely on the discretion of their parents, elders and well-wishers while taking a plunge into the most pivotal phase of their lives. To be fair to the institution of arranged marriage, one must say that most alliances click and thrive. Yet, some alliances fail miserably because one of the parties withholds a significant truth.
Mahabharatha speaks of one such regal wedding. Dhritarashtra, the Kuru prince, was blind by birth. His disability discouraged marriage proposals from royal maidens. His grandmother Satyavathi summoned her step son Bhishma and bid him to seek the hand of Gandhari, the princess of faraway Gandhara in marriage to Dhritarashtra.
Bhishma led an intimidating military expedition against Gandhara. Gandhari’s father King Subala was assuaged to consent to the proposal. The young bride-to-be was first kept in dark about Dhritarashtra. When she came know of it, she realised that the security of her motherland and the honour of her father was at stake. She weighed the pros and cons and decided to honour the commitment albeit blindfolded. Her decision proved to be detrimental to Dhritarashtra. He had hoped that she would become the vision he never had. But she decided to follow the tenets of Pathivratha dharma by deciding to not see the world that her husband could not see. Some critics interpret her action as her way of protesting the injustice meted out to her. No matter what the reason, the couple felt cheated and unhappy with each other. Their imperial and intellectual individualities could do little to salvage their marriage. Though they were crowned sovereigns and were parents of a hundred sons, their ideologies and priorities differed.
Time and again, there are instances of people with best interests of the couple in mind or callous vested interests who indulge in cooking up fictitious age, qualifications, health and wealth quotients, social and economic status among other factors to forge an alliance. Little do these people realise that they are paving way to a discontented society wallowing in self pity in the name of making the couple living happily ever after.