A moment please !!!

[Anand Hudli]

  This is in response to Jaldhar's message about smriti and shishhTaachaara
  which I mistakenly did not save.

  According to the Smriti's a girl should be given away in marriage
  at or before she reaches puberty. But the legal age of marriage in India
  is now 18. So it would be illegal in most cases, if the Smriti were
  to be followed to the letter. But there is a "way out." There are
  praayashchitta's mentioned to expiate the sin of marrying a girl who
  has past the age of puberty. If it be said that as long as we do the
  praayashchitta's, it is Ok to break the Smriti rule, then we are still
  breaking the spirit of the Smriti rule. If the praayashchitta becomes
  a routine case rather than a rare one, then what is the use of the rule?
  We might as well say that we can change the original rule to saying that
  girls can be married at any time after the age of 18 and include the
  praayashchitta as a part of the rule itself. This is what I was talking
  about.

  Anand