Throughout India, we hear reports of young couples facing opposition from their parents and families, people who have absolutely no chill whatsoever just because their kids chose their partners on their own. Phrases like honour killings, bride/groom kidnappings, child marriages, etc have found their way into the 'normalcy' chamber inside our heads because some people abhor the idea of freedom to love. And almost always, the broken record of justification they use? Tradition. Its called GANDHARV VIVAH In Rig vedic opinions and classical literature, the commonly described marriage method was Gandharva, where the bride and the groom had met each other in their ordinary village life, or in various other places such as regional festivals and fairs, begun to enjoy one another's company, and decided to be together. This free choice and mutual attraction were generally approved by their kinsmen. A passage in the Atharvaveda suggests that parents usually left the daughter free in selection of her lover and directly encouraged her in being forward in love-affairs. The mother of the girl thought of the time when the daughter's developed youth (Pativedanam, post puberty), that she would win a husband for herself, it was a smooth and happy sort of affair with nothing scandalous and unnatural about it. YES I LOVE MY TRADITION AS WELL AS ANCIENT INDIAN RITUALS