[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930) › v2.c19.112 # History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.112 History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.112 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c19.112](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.112) In the first place all writers on dharmaśāstra start with the propositions viz. (1) that the four \*varṇas\*, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra, are arranged in a descending scale of social status; and (2) that marriage is or was permissible between a male of a higher varṇa with a woman of a lower varṇa, but the union of a woman of a higher varṇa with a male of varṇa lower than her own is reprehensible and not permitted. There is a third proposition advanced by many writers that a man belongs to a particular \*varṇa\* or \*jāti\* by birth only i. e. if born in lawful wedlock of parents both of whom belong to that varṇa or \*jāti\*.¹²² This is the view held by all medieval writers and digests and it is expressly said that a man belongs to a caste by birth and no actions of his can alter that fact, that several castes are like the species of animals and that caste attaches to the body and not to the soul (vide Sūtasaṁhitā). When a male of a higher \*varṇa\* marries a woman of a lower \*varṇa\*, the marriage is said to be \*anuloma\* (lit. with the hair, in the natural order) and the offspring is said to be anuloma; when there is a union of a woman of a higher \*varṇa\* with a male of a lower \*varṇa\*, it is said to be \*pratiloma\* (against the hair, i. e. against the natural or proper order) and the children of the union are said to be \*pratiloma\*. These two words \*anuloma\* and \*pratiloma\* (as applied to marriage or progeny) hardly ever occur in the vedic literature. In the Bṛ. Up. (II. 1. 15) and Kauṣītaki Bṛ. Up. IV. 18 (quoted in note 89 above) the word ‘pratiloma’ is applied to the procedure adopted by a brāhmaṇa of going to a kṣatriya for knowledge about \*brahman\*. From this it may possibly be inferred that pratiloma and anuloma might have been employed with reference to marriages also (in the days of the Upaniṣad). Pāṇini (IV. 4. 28) teaches the formation of words from anuloma and pratiloma. They occur in Gautama (IV. 14-15), Baud. Dh. S. (I. 8. 8), Vasiṣṭha (18. 7), Manu (X. 13), Yāj. (I. 95) and other smṛti works. - [Previous: v2.c19.111](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.111) - [Next: v2.c19.113](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.113) - [Up: v2.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19) ## Linked texts (8) - [Aṣṭādhyāyī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.vyakarana.astadhyayi.4.4.28) — Pāṇini, Sanskrit - [Mānava Dharmaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.manu.10.13) — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit - [Baudhāyanadharmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.dharma.baudhayana.1.8) — Baudhāyana, Sanskrit - [Vasiṣṭhadharmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.dharma.vasistha.18.7) — Vasiṣṭha, Sanskrit - [Yājñavalkyasmṛti](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.yajnavalkya.1.95) — Yājñavalkya, Sanskrit - [Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇopaniṣad](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.upanisad.mukhya.kausitaki.4.18) — Sanskrit - [Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.upanisad.mukhya.brhadaranyaka.2.1.15) — Sanskrit - [Gautamadharmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.dharma.gautama) — Gautama (dharmasūtrakāra), Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.112](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.112) · Pramāṇa