Abstract:
Giving dowry is considered as an important event in Hindu wedding procedure.
But dowry is not accepted in any Hindu cultural literature. Time to time people
only decided the dowry system to fulfill their needs. As far as Eastern Sri Lanka is
concerned, dowry is maintained in most of the villages. It has made a remarkable
influence in people’s life in these areas. Thaali is a vital part of this dowry.
Karaitivu, Panankadu and Kalmunai areas, where Hindus are living mostly, are
taken in Ampara district to select samples for the research. Data which has been
received directly from research area is considered as main data of this research.
Dowry is against to the unity amongst families. Also dowry is a contrast in a
society which is consisting families as members. The research and the
recommendation on dowry lead to a unity not only in a single family also in whole
society. There is a tradition wearing of the thaali which is considered as vital part
of dowry, which is in yellow color rope. Later it is mostly converted into gold
thaali. Nowadays gold thaali is mostly compulsory in a wedding. Even if gold
thaali is worn mostly in India, yellow rope was also worn as thaali in most of the
villages in India and people accept this yellow rope commonly. It depends on
economic and geographic factors. But in Sri Lanka, women dislike to wear the
thaali in yellow rope. They wear only gold thaali, otherwise they don’t wear
thaali, even if they got married. It can be seen as a social disease. So this is
identified as research problem. If wearing thaali is considered as a traditional event
only, we can not say that the research on it gives better results. Beyond on the
tradition, it transforms as a social problem of women. Pressure based on dowry
from Bridegroom’s family mostly affects bride’s family. So this research considers
and studies this problem.
