Is dating a must before marriage?

If I ask the same in a different tone, why do people date and what "Really" do they acheive? Ok, let me come to the issue. We are married for 13 years. I never had a boy friend and he never had a girl friend till I was 21 and he was 26. (TRUE). We met in a family function and both our parents wanted us to marry, because e were chatting a lot (almost the whole day) in the function. I had no objection and the same with him too. (If you ask me "why?" I / we have no reasons). With in 3 months we needed to marry for our study pressures. We are truly happy together with 2 kids. The point is we never dated, and the same with my in-laws also.