Another aspect of traditional indian family practice that relates to dowries is how a family's wealth itself flows in estate planning. When the parents die their wealth and land are inherited only by their sons (none given to daughters). The dowry in that respect, also functions as a pre-payment of a share of the family's inheritance to the bride (and her new family,) as she's moving on to a different family.

In middle class and higher families, there is also a large amount of gold and jewelry gifted to the bride during marriage, by everyone in both the bride and husband's extended family. This is generally done in public and can be considered a pre-payment of her divorce settlement. This gold is owned by her and because this transfer is documented and done in public, if the couple breaks up, it would be known in the village whom the gold belongs to.

It's important to keep in mind that these traditions vary greatly within different Indian sub-cultures and even family to family. You can't paint everyone with the same brush of this article. The broader culture is also changing slowly as generations tick by, and women's education and their own capacity generate a salary grows rapidly.

I can imagine in 20 years there will be significant change to all these practices.