History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.297.1

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.