The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s5.5

c7.s5.5

The present day rule, which prohibits marriages between persons of the same *gotra*, was unknown to society for a long time. The very conception of *gotra* as a group of persons connected with each other by spiritual or blood relationship was unknown in the Vedic age. The word *gotra* occurs in the Vedic literature, but it is used there in the sense of a cow-pen. The prohibition of *sagotra* and *sapravara* marriages does not go back to a period much earlier than *c.* 600