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Paishacha Vivaha In Hindu Religion

Paishacha Vivaha is one of the eight types of marriage legally valid in Hindu religion. This is a non-acceptable form of marriage in Hinduism. At the lowest run is the paishacha marriage, in which a sleeping or unconscious girl is forcibly snatched and married.

Although force is applied in both the types, Paishacha and Rakshasa marriage, yet the unconscious state of the girl or her guardians has given it a separate category.

According to Manu, the law giver, when somebody rapes a sleeping or inebriated girl secretly, it is known as paishacha marriage.

Yajnavalkya describes it in other words as cohabiting with a girl by deceit and fraud, and it becomes paishacha type of marriage.

It was thoroughly uncivilized and barbarous method and was named as such because in northwestern India the paishachas were living in ancient times.