Prabhupāda: In the Kali-yuga one cannot maintain even one wife, what to speak of more than one wife. They are afraid to marry one wife. I first heard this, one elderly lady in New York. At that time, I was newcomer. I asked her, "Why don't you get your son married?" "Yes, he can be married, provided he can maintain wife," she said. So these things were unknown to us. In India, whether he'll be able to maintain . . . just like I was married when I was third-year student. Where is the income? There is no income, but still I was married.
Hari-śauri: That was formerly the Western system, that the prospective son-in-law, he would be checked first to see whether he would be able to maintain the girl.
Prabhupāda: That is everywhere. But expectation, he is educated, he'll . . . the first thing is in due time, either the girl or the boy must be married. That is Indian, in due time. Boy not exceeding twenty years or twenty-five years, utmost, and girl not exceeding fifteen years, sixteen years, must be. Saṁskāra. This is one of the saṁskāras. Saṁskāras bhavet . . . (indistinct) . . . just like garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, this is also one saṁskāra, and marriage is also saṁskāra. Must be married. Daśa-vidha-saṁskāra, ten kinds of saṁskāras, out of which marriage is one of the saṁskāras. And kanyā-dāya. Kanyā-dāya means . . . dāya means by law the father is bound to get his daughter married. By law. He cannot escape the responsibility. This is father's duty.
Rūpānuga: You gave the example that sometimes if a becomes bankrupt, he goes to court and the judge says: "You must take this money that you have left to your creditors and be satisfied," and he can escape in that way. But the one duty that a father has is getting the daughter married, that he cannot escape.
Prabhupāda: No, therefore it is called dāya, dāya-bhāk. Legally it is bound. He may not get his son married, but the daughter must be married. This is father's duty.
Rūpānuga: It is sinful, actually considered sinful, if he doesn't do that.