History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.290

v2.c26.290

It has been seen (pp. 437-38) that marriage between parties that are sagotra or sapravara is no marriage and the woman does not become the man's wife. What were the consequences of such a void union? Baud.¹¹⁶² (pravarādhyāya 54) says that if a man has intercourse with a sagotra girl he should undergo the penance of cāndrāyaṇa, after that he should not abandon the woman, but should only maintain her as if she were a mother or a sister; if a child is born it does not incur sin and it should take the gotra of Kaśyapa. Aparārka quotes (p. 80) Sumantu and another smṛti to the effect that if a person inadvertently marries a sagotra or samāna-pravara woman he should give up intercourse with her, should maintain her and undergo cāndrāyaṇa.¹¹⁶³ But if he knowingly marries a sagotra or sapravara girl the penance was heavier (viz. that for incest) and if he has intercourse with her or begets a child from her he loses his caste and the child will be a cāṇḍāla¹¹⁶⁴. The rule of Baud. that there would be no blemish and the child will be of Kaśyapa gotra is restricted to inadvertently marrying such a girl.¹¹⁶⁵ The Saṁ. Pr. quotes a verse of Kātyāyana to the effect that if a marriage is gone through with a sagotra, the girl may be again given in marriage to another. But the Saṁ. Pr. gets rid of that inconvenient text by saying that it does not apply to the present age. So the poor girl for no fault of hers had to pass her whole life in enforced celibacy, being neither an unmarried woman nor a widow.¹¹⁶⁶