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The Kamasutra on Courtship

The Kama Sutra is attributed to Vatsyayana who wrote his "profound discussion of love and sex" no later than 300 AD and perhaps as early as 300 BC. The work wasn’t original, it was a summing up of ancient wisdom. Love and sex were considered as something a-moral, something which transcends ethics and has its own justifications.

According to the Kama Sutra the results of marrying a young girl is untarnished love, "When a girl of the same cast, and a virgin, is married in accordance with the precepts of the Holy Writ (Darma Shastras), the results of such a union are. untarnished love."

Loving a girl that had been loved by others would be reproachful, "But at all events, says Ghotakamukha, a girl who has already been joined with others (that is, no longer a maiden) should never be loved, for it would be reproachful to do such a thing." A girl who has "fully arrived at puberty" should be avoided as a wife.

The Kama Sutra describes wooing, "When a boy has thus begun to woo a girl that he loves, he should spend his time with her and amuse her with various games and diversions fitted for their age and acquaintanceship, such as picking and collecting flowers, making garlands of flowers, playing parts of members of a fictitious family.. the game of odds and evens, the game of finding out the middle finger, the game of six pebbles. Hide-and-seek, playing with seeds, blind-man’s bluff and other games of the same sort." In short, child’s games.

If the wooer is a man he should, "attach himself to the daughter of the girl’s nurse and. procure for her such playthings as may be hardly known to other girls. He should give her dolls made of cloth.."

We may wonder what the girl thinks of all this. According to the Kama Sutra, a girl always shows her love by outward signs and actions, "She never looks the man in the face and becomes abashed when she is looked at by him; under some pretext or another she shows her limbs to him; she looks secretly at him; hangs down her head when she is asked some questions by him, and answers in indistinct words and unfinished sentences, delights to be in his company for a long time; under some pretext or another she makes him look at different things, narrates to him tales and stories very slowly so that she may continue conversation with him for a long time; always wears anything that he may have presented to her, and becomes dejected when any other bridegroom is mentioned by her parents.."

That the attentions are being paid to pre-pubescent girls is shown clearly by the concluding paragraph on Kama Sutra courtship, "A man who has seen and perceived the feelings of the girl toward him, and who has noticed the outward signs and movements by which those feelings are expressed, should do everything in his power to effect a union with her. He should gain over a young girl by childlike sports."

Later, in the Yajñvalkya Smriri and its contemporary literature, we find that the fear of post-puberty marriages became so great that the Smitris brought the marriageable age of girls still lower. According to the Parashar Smitri and Sheeghrabodha the marriageable girls were divided into five categories:

1) Nagnika or naked. A girl seven years old or younger. This was regarded as best age for marriage.

2) Gauri. A girl eight years old.

3) Rohini. A girl of nine years old.

4) Kanya. A ten years old girl.

5) Rajaswala. A girl above ten years old.

According to Vaikhnasa, a Brahmin should marry a Nagnika since that is the best match. According to Marici the best age of marriage for a girl is five years old. Brahmapurana also prescribes marriage in childhood. Failure to do this will condemn the parents or gaurdian to utmost degradation.
http://www.stormloader.com/munaypata/India.htm