Marriage is very much needed to lead a merry life on this globe. Wedding grooms the purpose of living in the world. Matrimony brings the family that gives the concept of living in this world. In mythologies we see more mirthful weddings of even gods and goddesses. Matrimonial life gives the satisfaction of living happily on this earth. Orion is a handsome giant, mighty hunter and the god of the sea in Greek mythology. Orion fell in love with Merope, the daughter of Oenopion, king of Chios. Oenopion, the father constantly deferred his consent to the marriage of Orion and Merope. Then Orion attempted to gain possession of the maiden by violence. Oenopion became furious and with the aid of the god Dionysus, threw Orion into a deep sleep and blinded him. Thus the wars of love and marriage have been found among the gods and goddesses in mythology. Orion then consulted an oracle, which told him he could regain his sight by going to the east and letting the rays of the rising sun fall on his eyes. His sight restored, he lived on Crete as the huntsman of the goddess Artemis. The goddess eventually killed him, however, because she was jealous of his affection for Aurora, goddess of the dawn. After Orion's death, Artemis placed him in the heavens as a constellation. Thus even the gods and goddesses have loved and felt jealous with each other in the matrimony. They have developed the infatuation and wanted to choose their fiancé and fiancée in accordance with their convenience and thus matrimony is one of the important aspects in mythology.

A marriage gives rise to a number of issues of status, rights, and duties to the matrimonial couples. Spouses after marriage get a duty to live together and maintain each other and also their children who produce as a result of wedding, which is the main objective for ritual and traditional marriage. Irrespective of ownership, a spouse has the right to occupy the matrimonial home, and the property of either becomes an asset of the marriage. Husbands and wives have separate identities for the purposes of income tax in most of the countries. The marriage may unite them but their properties remain with each of them until one is deceased. On divorces or break in marriages, the court must ensure that adequate financial arrangements are made and must be given to each other. The wife gets the financial assistance from the husband on the break of wedding. The court has very wide powers to redistribute the family assets, and also they may decide in an appropriate case to impose a clean break on a couple, and unite the couples and does not give acceptance to the break of their marriages, particularly where the marriage has been of short duration and the couples are young. In other cases the court sometimes operates a one third rule, whereby the woman gets one third of the combined income of the marriage. The man has more responsibilities than the woman on the break of matrimonial. For example, the law on property ownership favours the party to the marriage who has financially contributed to the partnership and ignores the work that many women perform in the home in bringing up a family. Thus, there are lots of legal boundaries for the marriages as per the rules of law and rules want to keep the matrimonies and not to break the marriages.

Dowry may include cash, material goods, or land that a wife or wife's family, used to the husband upon marriage. There are many norms are available for getting the dowry based on good employments and business and also the personalities of the bridegrooms. Really it has become a menace in the society. Many a times marriages are delayed due to dowry. Most of the time peace, tranquility and happiness of the marriages get robbed off by the dowry. Most religions of the world ban dowries as menace and evil but the followers find interested in getting the dowry during matrimony. During the marriages the dowry is kept decorated so that all the invitees may have a look on the dowry. This tradition increases the dowry further as people exchange gifts as a mark of pride during the marriages in the name of dowry. The dowry has become one of the rituals and the pre requisites for the wedding. Many societies demand dowry and get it as gifts from the bride side. The dowry affects the bride side during the eve of marriages. Wedding has become a Herculean task due to the wide spread rituals of offering dowry.

Bride wealth is still a fundamental part of certain African cultures, whereas dowry payments have most often been found in South Asian and some European societies. In Middle Eastern countries, an exorbitant dowry is given by the Groom to the Bride. This reverse arrangement surely hampers the timely marriage of several grown ups and eligible boys and girls. Many dowry deaths and deceiving are reported nowadays, in India and sub-continents. Many new laws are framed to restrict the menace of dowry during the wedding.

In most countries, the dowry constitutes a distinct and important aspect of wedding. The dowry is given to the husband, who has exclusive control and administration of it during marriage. The dowry becomes the property of the husband and in laws of the bride after the matrimony. The dowry may also serve as an insurance against bad treatment of the wife by the husband. The husband who gets more dowries during the matrimony is expected to treat his wife well. The material world paves way to see everything materially even the marriages and families. Many weddings are taken place only on the basis of dowries nowadays. Even during betrothal and before marriages these dowry things have been discussed clearly. The wife may not deprive the husband of its control and the husband is bound to protect the property that he receives as dowry after the marriage.

In India despite legislation of 1950s against the dowry system, the giving of dowry to the couple during marriage by the bride's family has proved difficult to eradicate. Families of grooms demand a high price for marriage, especially if they are well employed while the bride lacks beauty and education. In recent years, strong opposition has arisen in India against the system, especially following incidents of dowry deaths and divorces after the marriages. The brides are ill treated and even murdered in most of the cases in the third world countries if proper dowry is not paid during and after the ceremony of marriage. The phenomenal rise in such types of dowry tortures has given a type of clarion call to the social active and human rights groups to eradicate dowry in marriages.

Marriage must take place on pure understanding of love and to groom a good family and caring of each spouse after the wedding. Islam has another alternative as mahr, which is a gift of money or property given by a bridegroom to his bride without which a marriage is not valid. Mahr is a must for Muslims marriages to get consummates. The amount or property of mahr must be fixed during the ceremony of marriage, with the consultation of bride otherwise the marriage cannot be valid. It is better to pay mahr on the spot during the ceremony of marriage but in some situations, it may be deferred and paid after marriage, during divorce and widowhood.

Most of the burden of the marriage has fallen on the shoulders of the bride and her family due to unwanted traditions in the society. Much legislation is still passed to eradicate this dowry menace from the society and marriages can be made simple. The educated women are subjected to pay huge sums and things for the sake of dowry during their marriages. The government is trying its level best to nib this evil in the bud. Thus dowry has become an important tradition and social menace of the marriages in the world.

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