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దంపూరు నరసయ్య
able practice which obtains universally in Europe, and generally among the more civilized communities of Asia; or as the rhyme, less elegantly, but more tersely puts it, are Hindu Females not only — To choose a proper mate – But proper time to marry?
That is the question; and with regard to it, Venkannah Shastry and his friend the Spiritual Head Sreemut Sankara Charriar say that the custom ought to continue in all its purity, while Runganada Shastry and his friend Anantha Rama Shastry say that it ought to be abolished, and so say we. Runganada Shastry and his party maintain their opinion by passages adduced from the Laws of Manu. Venkannah and his party appeal to the same authority in support of their opinion, and thus we see that among our Hindu friends as among ourselves one source is applied to and two opposite conclusions drawn. We among our sects and denominations, apply to one Book and draw various and different inferences, the Hindu Shastries apply to one Code and as various and diametrically opposed are the conclusions they draw. Such being the case, it would have been very difficult to decide who is in the right or who is in the wrong? But that difficulty is overcome by the fact, painful no doubt, but very plain, that Runganada Shastry and his party have applied to the wrong source for evidence in support of their cause. For we do but bare justice to Venkannah Shastry when we admit that the conclusions he has drawn from the quoted passages of Manu are the only conclusions that can be legitimately drawn from them. Further more we must admit that Runganada Shastry, or rather his friend Anantha Rama, has come to a most extraordinarily illogical conclusion with respect to the meaning of the passages he himself quotes, and certainly Vekanna Shastry has turned the tables admirably against his opponent and judged him from his own mouth. So far, so good. We give the opposite party credit for handling their arguments well and ably, so far as those arguments are drawn from their own leading Code of Laws. We will admit then that whether in the original Sanscrit, or in the translation into Tamil, or in the re-translation into English, Manu's Code enjoins the practice of early infant marriages among Hindus, and that this practice has been observed for more than three thousand years now. So far we join issue with the pro-infant marriage party. But we are prepared to contend with anti-infant party, or rather in behalf of them, (for, as far as we have
