Marriage
The era of leading a normal life was however destined to end at quite an early age. In 1941, at the age of 22, Lekha was married to Jivajirao Scindia, Maharaja of Gwalior, one of the largest, richest and highest-ranking 21-gun-salute princely states in India. As per tradition, a new name was chosen for Lekha based upon the matching of the couple's horoscopes, and she assumed the name 'Vijayaraje Scindia'.
Her grandfather having died, Lekha's maternal uncles were instrumental in negotiating the alliance. Her husband family, the Scindias, were among the most prominent Maratha families of the land. The fact that Lekha belonged to one of the hoariest Rajput families in the sub-continent, (albeit to an impoverished cadet branch of such), undoubtedly lent special weight, in the eyes of her husband's family, to the suit that was pressed on Lekha's behalf by her uncles. Nevertheless, Vijayaraje Scindia recollects in her autobiography that she did face some initial hostility from her new family. She sensed that this wariness on their part was based on the fear that her non-Maratha heritage may result in the traditions of the ruling family being impacted. Vijayaraje privately resolved never to allow this to become an issue; by sedulous effort, she becoming utterly acclimatized to the Maratha customs and traditions of the Scindia family and thus won over her detractors.
Read more about this topic: Vijayaraje Scindia
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“Adultery is the vice of equivocation.
It is not marriage but a mockery of it, a merging that mixes love and dread together like jackstraws. There is no understanding of contentment in adultery.... You belong to each other in what together you’ve made of a third identity that almost immediately cancels your own. There is a law in art that proves it. Two colors are proven complimentary only when forming that most desolate of all colors—neutral gray.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)
“For the longest time, marriage has had a guilty conscience about itself. Should we believe it?—Yes, we should believe it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“It appears that ordinary men take wives because possession is not possible without marriage, and that ordinary women accept husbands because marriage is not possible without possession; with totally differing aims the method is the same on both sides.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)