Rakshasa Vivaha is one of the eight types of marriage legally valid in Hindu religion. Manu holds that snatching away a wailing girl by killing or injuring her guardians by force is a rakshasa vivaha. This is a non-acceptable form of marriage in Hinduism.
Yajnavalkya opines that rakshasa type of marriages was performed during a war. Manu’s definition also indicates war.
This was the oldest method of marrying when a girl was forcibly taken away for this purpose. Several customs and practices are cited in its favor in which marital customs of cutting a torana by a sword and referring to the robing of the bride’s father in marriage songs.
Rakshasa marriages were prevalent right from the Mahabharata period up to the medieval ages. The custom was prevalent among the soldier class or kshatriya up to the 12th century CE.