[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897) › c8.104 # The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c8.104 The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c8.104 - **Language:** English ### [c8.104](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c8.104) also here the principle is expressed that—in a marriage of a higher with a lower caste—the caste of the father is the most important and seems to determine that of the son.¹ On the other hand, the view, according to which the marriage of a dvija with a Śûdra woman is considered objectionable, appears to be predominant in the law-books; it is true, a Śûdra woman is allowed even to a Brâhmaṇa, along with women of higher castes, but it is added that such marriages bring about with certainty the degradation of the family.² If we add to this circumstance the tendency which is manifestly noticeable in the Jâtakas, of preventing a degradation of the family through mixture with lower castes and mention further the fact that even in Greek accounts³ the prohibition of marriage between the different classes is pointed out as a characteristic feature of Indian Society, I should believe that the king followed the general rule and especially, the traditions of his class in his views concerning the degradation of his wife and the son born of her. Exceptions—we can find these in the case of this proposition, if they are not already self-evident—occur, and here belongs the incident narrated in the Kaṭṭhahâri Jâtaka (I. 134 sq.), namely, the installation of a wood-gatherer (Kaṭṭhahârikâ) as the aggamahesî and the handing over of the viceregency to the illegitimate son; here belongs the story (contained in the paccuppannavatthu of Kummâsapinḍa Jâtaka III. 406) of the queen Mallikâ who is brought by the Kosala king from the house of her father and made the principal queen. There are again exceptions which maintain the principle of endogamy as the rule, but on the other hand, show that the boundaries of the caste organisation were not inviolable, at any rate, not for one who, like the king, stood above the prescriptions of caste and represented a power which at least at that time and in that part of India of which we are speaking, had not yet been rendered inert through priestly influence, namely, the political power, the State. - [Previous: c8.103](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c8.103) - [Next: c8.105](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c8.105) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c8) ## Linked texts (1) - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka.7) — Pāli --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c8.104](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c8.104) · Pramāṇa