印度传统嫁妆兼有涉婚支付与女性财产两种性质，是印度教家户达摩的重要内容。婚姻是家居期印度教圣事，以种姓内婚制为基本原则。古代嫁妆是婆罗门提倡的涉婚支付方式，在婚姻仪式中处于从属地位。印度家户以父权制联合家庭为基本结构形式，以男性共同继承财产为核心，女性享有家产受益权为辅助，包含析产、扶养、继承等制度。嫁妆与家户“达摩”曾是历史合理的婚姻家庭制度。 自近代起，嫁妆发生实质性变异，对印度社会诸方面产生影响，频繁引发嫁妆致死犯罪。嫁妆由对新娘的祝福变成谋害新娘的“诅咒”。针对嫁妆问题，印度政府建立了一套以《嫁妆禁止法》、《刑法》“嫁妆致死”罪为主干的多元抵制嫁妆法律体系。最高法院嫁妆致死案判决显示，嫁妆类司法效果不够理想。禁止嫁妆法处于文本法与行动法的张力之中。 嫁妆法律变革是印度婚姻家庭法现代改革的组成部分。印度现代婚姻家庭法是一个由各宗教、族群属人法加国家立法组成的多元板块拼图式体系，其总体趋势是，由传统法向现代法、宗教法向世俗法转变，由分散向统一缓慢演进。现代嫁妆由原本赠与新娘的礼物性财产，变成了新郎联合家庭的共同财富。嫁妆法改革就整个现代印度婚姻法体系而言，处在杠杆支点的位置。 现代嫁妆与童婚、寡妇萨蒂作为印度婚姻家庭场域三大“陋习”，在近现代变革中具有互动关系。童婚制度从近代立法限制改革到全面禁止，经历了长期变革。英国殖民时期立法废除了寡妇萨蒂制度，但萨蒂迄今仍有发生。萨蒂与嫁妆致死在用火焰毁灭女性，以获得现实利益并美化犯罪方面，如出一辙。 嫁妆反映出印度婚姻家庭制度改革所面临的问题盘根错节。究其原因，既有近代遭遇殖民以及印度文化情境本身的特殊根源，也有全球现代化环境的共同背景。其中，印度教与种姓制度是决定性因素。现代嫁妆的实质，是处于社会转型的婚姻家庭场域中，传统与现代各类资本重新分裂聚变、新旧各种权力重塑社会阶层与支配关系的手段和机制。 嫁妆制度的变迁，乃至印度近现代婚姻家庭法的整体变革，是一个由梵入凡的过程。嫁妆不仅仅是婚姻家庭领域的课题，已成为印度法系现代转型过程诸多错综难题的一个缩影。通过嫁妆管窥印度婚姻家庭法，有助于理解印度现代法律改革的艰深性，并思考全球化情境下印度法系未来的命运问题。
Hindu traditional dowry - strīdhana, as a significant institution in the household dharma system, was both women’s property and marriage payment in ancient India. Marriage was deemed to be one of the sacraments in the household stage, accompanying with the caste endogamy as its fundamental principle. It was the advocation by Brahmins that made strīdhana become a fashion of marriage payment increasingly since the Dharmásāstra age, despite its subordination in marriage rites. Hindu household was framed by joint family system, mainly involving male coparcenary, partition, inheritance and maintenance, etc.. In this structure, strīdhana with household dharma was historically reasonable marriage and family mechanism. However, modern India has witnessed for centuries such aberrance of the dowry that modern dowry no longer belongs to strīdhana and has much influence on various facets of Indian society in turn. It has been inducing crimes, shifting marriage payment into the “curse” causing death rather than the blessing of newlyweds. In this context, Indian government has implemented legal reforms which are comprised of Dowry Prohibition Act, “dowry death” inserted in the Indian Penal Code and other laws or provisions since 1960s. The justice of dowry death cases by Indian Supreme Court during 1986-2014 indicates that there is still a tension between the legislative text and the “law” in action. The reform of anti-dowry statutes is one section of the modernization of Indian marriage and family laws. Indian modern household legal system appears to be a multi plate - jigsaw puzzle fabric combined with religious or ethnic personal laws plus state legislations. It has been going forward gradually from traditional religious law to modern secular law, from scattering to integrating simultaneously. Modern dowry has by now become the coparcenary wealth of a bridegroom’s joint family other than the gifts to a bride. Taken as a whole, the transformation of dowry rules is acting as the fulcrum in the transition of modern Indian household laws in this day and age. Together as three Hindu corrupt customs, modern dowry, child marriage and sati have been interacting with one another since the beginning of modern era. The prohibition superseding restraint of child marriage has undergone several decades across two centuries. Sati, though prohibited in Anglo-Indian era, still occurs sporadically; it runs in the same groove as dowry death on the murder of women by “bride burning”. The reasons for the complex of modern dowry and the whole marital family system involve such ingredients as follows: the colonization and modernization as the direct causes; the caste marriage system as the institutional root; the religion of Hinduism and the patriarchal tradition as the cultural foundation; the role of Brahmin spiritual leaders as the necessary impetus; the village community and globalization as the context; the Indians’ universal participation on dowry competition as the source of power. Virtually, it is a movement in household field of both re-division with reassembly of various capitals and reshaping of social classes and the dominance relationship by all sorts of powers. To sum up, the transformation of dowry, as well as the marriage and family legal system, is one of the witnesses to the movement “from Sanskritization to Secularization” in India. Dowry has been an epitome of the complexity of Hindu law system during the modern social transformation. Only by reflecting the Indian legal culture on the back of marriage payment, can we comprehend the complication of legal reform in modern India and contemplate the future of Indian law system.
