 Joint families were the norm but legal separations between brothers and even father and son have been recorded in inscriptions . Women and daughters had rights over property and land as there are inscriptions recording the sale of land by women . The arranged marriage system followed a strict policy of early marriage for women . Among Brahmins , boys married at or below 16 years of age and the brides chosen for them were 12 or younger . This age policy was not strictly followed by other castes . Sati ( a custom in which a dead man 's widow would immolate herself on her husband 's funeral pyre ) was practiced but the few examples noted in inscriptions were mostly in the royal families . The system of shaving the heads of widows was infrequent as epigraphs note that widows were allowed to grow their hair but decorating it was discouraged . The remarriage of a widow was rare among the upper castes and more accepted among the lower castes . 
