On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s8.7

v1.c8.s8.7

The sentence here rendered "The members of a caste marry within the caste, the great and the obscure keeping apart" is in the original *hun-chü-t'ung-ch'in-fei-fu-yi-lu* (婚娶通親飛伏異路), lit. "marriages go through the kindred, flying and prostrate different ways". Julien translates the words—"Quand les hommes ou les femmes se marient, ils prennent un rang élevé ou restent dans une condition obscure, suivant la difference de leur origine." This rendering seems to be absurd and it does violence to the text leaving out the two words *t'ung-ch'in* and mistranslating *yi-lu*. What our author states seems to be clear and simple. Marriages take place within a caste, and a Vaiśya man, for example, may marry any Vaiśya maid. And he will marry no other. To Yuan-chuang a caste was a *gens* or a clan denoted by one surname (姓) and all who belonged to the *gens* were kindred, they were of one *jāti*. So members of the caste might intermarry provided they were not already related by marriage. But though a man might espouse any maid of his caste, the rich and great married among themselves, and the poor and obscure kept to themselves in their marriages. The words *fei*, "flying" and *fu* "prostrate", used for prosperous and *obscure* have a reference to the first chapter of the Yih-ching. With what Yuan-chuang tells us here we may compare Manu who lays down the law that "a father ought to give his daughter in marriage to a distinguished young man of an agreeable exterior and of the same class", and of the lady he says—"let her choose a husband of the same rank as herself."[1]