This article on age at marriage in the Indian context uses 1981 census data in an attempt to highlight the trend pattern and differentials in age at marriage by rural-urban residence state religion and educational levels while attempting to hypothesize theories concerning those trends. An examination of the proportion of young females ever married indicates that a major change in social attitudes has occurred in India over the past 2 decades. The proportion of rural females 15-19 ever married dropped from 75% in 1961 to 62% in 1971 and 57.6% in 1981. Significant decreases in the proportion ever married also occurred for females aged 20-24. The shift in the age at marriage from earlier to older ages and the increasing difference in the rural-urban proportion of those ever married are additional features of a population in the mid-transition period during which fertility starts to decline following a rapid decline in mortality as observed in the case of India. Christians marry a little later than Sikhs who marry a little later than Jains while Buddhists marry a little earlier than Muslims and Hindus. The projected shortage of females of marriageable age should induce parents to delay the marriage of their daughters while continuing to invest in their future prospects through providing a greater amount of education. The combination of increased education later marriage and projected changes in fertility and mortality are likely to lead to significant changes in the status of women in India.