The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s5.16

c7.s5.16

It was from about the 10th century A. D. that intercaste marriages began to go out of fashion. Alberuni (*c.* 1020 A. D.) observes that the Brahmanas of his day no longer availed themselves of the permission to take wives from the three lower castes. Kalhaṇa, the 12th century Brahmana historian of Kashmir, had to record the marriage of a sister of king Saṁgrāmarāja (1003-1028 A. D.) with a Brahmana youth. The marriage evidently shocked him, and he does not fail to express his regret that the king should not have realised how he was bringing his family into disgrace by such an intercaste union³. Several 16th and 17th century travellers have noted how intercaste marriages were quite unknown to the contemporary Hindu society.