History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.297
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.297
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v2.c26.297.1
Sagotra relationship is in one direction wider than sapiṇḍa relationship and narrower than it in another so far as marriage is concerned. A man cannot marry the daughter of any sagotra, however distant the sagotra may be. Similarly even an adopted man cannot marry the daughter of a sagotra of his genitive father for two reasons, firstly because, though on adoption he becomes severed from his natural family for inheritance and offering of piṇḍa (vide Manu IX. 142), his other relationships with the natural family remain intact; and secondly because Manu (III. 5) says that the girl must not be a sagotra of the bridegroom's father (and so even if by adoption a man goes into another gotra, it is the father's gotra that is to be considered). Sapiṇḍa relationship prohibiting marriage extends only to seven or five generations, but prohibitions on the ground of sagotra relationship extend to any number of generations. On the other hand sapiṇḍas may be either of the same gotra (i. e. sagotra) or of a different gotra (i.e. bhinnagotra). Thus up to a certain limit sapiṇḍas include both sagotras and bhinnagotras. The latter are called bandhus by the Mit.; they are all cognate relations and have an important place in inheritance. We have seen (p. 436-37) that sagotra marriages were totally forbidden in the sūtras (in the śrauta sūtras like Lāṭyāyana śrauta and in gṛhya and dharma sūtras). A passage of the Śat. Br. (quoted above at p.
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461) is relied upon by Professors Macdonell and Keith (Vedic Index vol. I. p. 236) for holding that marriages within the third and fourth degrees on both maternal and paternal sides were allowed in the days of the Śatapatha and that therefore a man could marry in those days his paternal uncle's daughter. This latter is a startling proposition. The passage in the Śat. Br. is no doubt expressed in general words ('one may be united in the third or fourth generation'). But that passage is generally applicable even if only a marriage with a maternal uncle's daughter or paternal aunt's daughter is meant. The passage does not expressly allow paternal cousins' marriages. The dharma-sūtras prohibit sagotra marriages. Both the learned Professors, as most western scholars do, probably hold that the Śatapatha is not separated from the sūtras by more than a few centuries. If a paternal uncle's daughter had been eligible for marriage in the times of the Śatapatha, but became forbidden in the times of the sūtras we shall have to suppose that an usage died out from one end of the country to another and an opposite usage became prevalent throughout within a few centuries. The smṛtis are not afraid of stating ancient practices which they themselves do not accept (i. e. *niyoga*). The smṛtis do not say that marriages with paternal uncle's daughters were ever allowed anywhere.
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So it appears that the Śatapatha is not referring to marriage with paternal uncle's daughter, but to marriage with maternal uncle's or paternal aunt's daughter. It must however be pointed out that Aparārka (pp. 15. 63), the Sm. C. (I. p. 12), Par. M. I. part 1 p. 133 and other digests quote a passage from the Brahmapurāṇa¹¹⁶⁷ that sagotra and sapiṇḍa marriages are forbidden in the Kali age. It may be argued with some force that this implies that sagotra marriages once took place. But there are various ways of explaining this. It is possible that in the purāṇa the word gotra is not used in the technical sense, but only in the sense of family or surname. Among śūdras there is no gotra in the strict sense, but they also do not marry a girl who is believed to be of the same family, though the exact relationships or generations are not known. Besides it has been shown above that if a woman was a putrikā or married in the Gāndharva or Āsura form she retained the gotra of her father and the son of the putrikā would have the gotra of his maternal grand-father and yet being of a different family his marriage with the daugther of a sagotra of the maternal grand-father might have taken place in ancient times and was forbidden in the Kali age by the purāṇa. Similarly the implied reference to marriages of sapiṇḍas as taking place in former ages has probably marriage with maternal uncle's daughter in view.
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When in the kalivarjya texts it is said 'these dharmas are declared to be prohibited by the sages in the Kali age' (vide Vyavahāra-mayūkha p. 242), it is not proper to argue that everyone of the practices forbidden in the kali age was valid in former ages. All that is meant seems to be that most of them were allowed in former ages and these along with others enumerated are not to be practised in the Kali age, just as when in a crowd many have umbrellas and a few have not, a speaker still says with reference to the whole crowd ‘chatriṇo gacchanti’ (here go persons with umbrellas).