Paternal authority in marriage

Paternal authority in marriage is expressed as a family rule that the daughters of Kuśanábha accept as decisive: they refuse a divine suitor and defer to the husbands their father chooses. The episode makes the rule concrete when Kuśanábha selects Brahmadatta for his hundred daughters and gives them to him in marriage.

The principle in the daughters’ reply

When Vayu woos the daughters, they answer that they prize honor and will not refuse their truthful father’s choice. They present their father as supreme in authority and accept as husbands those to whom his decree gives them. Their reply makes paternal decision—not a daughter’s independent choice—the stated basis for marriage.

Refusal of Vayu

The daughters’ deference does not mean silence: they speak for themselves and reject Vayu’s proposal. Their reason, however, is not a competing preference among suitors; they invoke their father’s authority as the obligation that governs their answer. Vayu hears their refusal and burns with rage, making the episode’s conflict turn on the daughters’ fidelity to that authority.

Kuśanábha’s choice and its outcome

The narrative later shows the rule in practice. Kuśanábha plans that his hundred daughters should have a husband, then gives them all to Brahmadatta in response to his call. Brahmadatta takes each maiden by the hand. The account thus moves from the daughters’ declaration that their father will determine their husbands to the king’s exercise of that choice in arranging their marriage.