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Every Sunday morning millions of Indians settle down with a cup of tea and the special weekend issues of their newspapers, just as Americans do. But here, with the marriage season approaching, many of them turn quickly to a Sunday feature that is particularly Indian―the columns and columns of marriage advertisements in which young people look for husbands and wives.

“Beautiful Brahman girl wanted for bank officer from well?onnected family,” one says. “Vegetarian man (doctor, engineer preferred) for church?ducated girl with light complexion,” says another. “Solid 25　earld, salary four figures, wants tall, charming, educated Punjabi,” says a third.

This is a relatively modern change in the age ld custom of the arranged marriage. The thousands of advertisements published each week increasingly reflect social changes that are coming to this traditional society. For example, although women are still usually described in terms of appearance, or skills in “the wifely arts,” information about their earning power is entering more and more of the advertisements. This reflects the arrival in India of the working wife.

Divorce, which used to be almost unheard of in India, is sometimes now mentioned in the advertisements as in the case of a woman whose advertisement in a New Delhi newspaper explained that she had been “the innocent party” when her marriage broke up.

Because the custom of the dowry (marriage payment) is now illegal, some advertisements say “no dowry,” or “simple marriage,” which means the same thing. However, the fathers of many bridegrooms still require it.

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