[cakaeroryrere]

sir - whereas today many children have unfortunate physical & mental deformities even right from birth due to their parents having same blood group or their parents being close relatives, in those days it is really amazing how inspite of not having medical facilities like blood test, inspite of having only arranged marriages based on matching of horoscope of girl & boy, most of the children born were fairly healthy both in mental & physical aspect!

normally after marriage, if a women gets pregnant there are at least 2functions to be performed during the period- Valaikaappu (bangle wearing ceremony) & Poochoottal. then after child is born there are two immediate orthodox functions - punyojanam (ceremony during which child is named, normally held on 11 day of child's birth) & aayushahomam(ist birthday of child). then ofcourse, if a boy is born upanayanam has to be performed once he reaches 7 years. all these orthodox functions do cost lot of money. so only to render some assistance , and to bless his daugher & son in law and their future issues, the father of the girl normally gives a significant amount as dowry to his son in law at the during the marriage.

once temples were destroyed by islamic invaders & orthodoxy coming under severe attack from british evangelists , the source of income for bramins was eliminated. with cost of living also being very high, it was naturally difficult for bramins to live in an orthodox way by being dependent on temple incomes. so naturally bramins had to move out of temples to other jobs also. thus bramins were separated into 2 classes - the priestly class & other non priestly bramins.