History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.297.3

v2.c26.297.3

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.