History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.137

v2.c26.137

The smṛṭi passages that condemn cross-cousin marriages are explained in a peculiar manner by the Sm. C. and the Par. M. When a woman is married in one of the four forms, brāhma &c., she passes into the gotra of her husband, becomes a sapiṇḍa in the husband's family and so she is severed from her father's family (as to gotra and sapiṇḍa relationship); but when a woman is married in the āsura, gāndharva and other forms, she does not pass over into the *gotra* of her husband, but remains in the *gotra* of the father and her sapiṇḍa relationship with her father and brother continues. Therefore the son of such a woman, if he marries the daughter of his mother's brother, would be marrying a girl who is a sagotra and sapiṇḍa of his mother. The Sm. C. and the Par. M. and other works say that the smṛti texts forbidding marriage with maternal uncle's daughter refer to a person whose mother was married in the gāndharva, āsura and the other two forms, but not to a person whose mother was married in the brāhma and the three other approved forms. This is the reasoning of the Sm. C. and the Par. M.¹⁰⁹³