History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.16

v2.c26.16

Yāj. (I. 54-55) emphasizes the importance of a good family famed for ten generations and freedom from diseases that are hereditarily transmitted and adds that the bridegroom must be young, intelligent, a favourite among the people and his virility must be carefully tested. The Mit. on Yāj. 1. 55 quotes Nārada (strīpuṁsa) who mentions some characteristics of the virile man and enumerates fourteen varieties of impotent persons (verses 11-13). Kātyāyana¹⁰²¹ mentions what defective bridegrooms are to be avoided viz. the lunatic, one guilty of grave sins, leprous, impotent, one of the same *gotra*, one bereft of eyesight or hearing, an epileptic and adds that these defects are to be avoided even among brides. The Mahābhārata observes 'friendship and marriage should take place between those alone whose wealth is similar and whose learning (i. e. the learning in whose families) is of equal status, not between opulent (well-off) and the poverty-stricken'.¹⁰²²