Short answers, pulled from the story.
Dowry is defined as property transferred from the bride's family to the groom to serve as a form of inheritance for daughters excluded from their father's estate. In ancient Babylon, this economic mechanism dictated a woman's fate before she left her father's house and could be returned to her or her family in the event of divorce or the husband's death.
Anthropologist Jack Goody identified a correlation where dowry is common in societies with intensive plough agriculture and private property norms. This system keeps property within the nuclear family and ensures monogamy, contrasting with hoe-based societies where bride price compensates the bride's family for the loss of her labor.
Roman law developed dos profectitia given by the father and dos adventitia given by others to contribute to the costs of setting up a new household. A species called dos receptitia was to be restored to the dowry giver upon the wife's death, while property not included in the dowry remained the wife's own property known as parapherna.
The Dowry Prohibition Act was passed in India in 1961 to prohibit the payment of cash or gifts from the bride's family to the groom's family upon arranged marriage. Despite this law, the practice remains common and has led to dowry-murder, which is the killing of a wife for not bringing sufficient dowry to the marriage.
The Portuguese crown gave two cities in India and Morocco as dowry to the British Crown in 1661 when King Charles II of England married Catherine of Braganza, a princess of Portugal. This transfer of vast inheritances was standard for aristocratic and royal brides during the Middle Ages and early modern era in Europe.
Official government records suggest 7,618 dowry deaths in 2006, with estimates for actual numbers ranging from 600 to 750 homicides a year to 25,000 homicides a year. The dowry death rate in India has been about 0.7 women per 100,000 every year from 1998 to 2009.