ABSTRACT
Divorce is very often declared to be unknown within Hindu tradition. Such a purported absence is framed within the notion of Hindu marriage as conceptualized in the classical Hindu texts: the union sanctioned by the performance of the sacred rites that bring a permanent change to the spouses and yield a sacred and indissoluble union. The very nature of ancient and classical Hindu texts and their value as sources of law have already been abundantly discussed by scholars holding conflicting views. Hindu divorce in South Asia has been steadily if scantly recorded. Evidence ranges from the fugitive portrait to established conceptualizations. Dumont establishes a hierarchy between primary marriage celebrated with full rituals, and secondary marriage celebrated with abbreviated rituals, which essentially concern women. Multidisciplinary inquiry itself has been connected with feminist methodology because, in its criticism of male dominated positive knowledge, women's studies often cross disciplinary boundaries.
