History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.42

v2.c26.42

There are further restrictions about choosing a girl for marriage. The rule was that a man should marry a girl of the same caste. So far there is what is called endogamy (i. e. rule requiring marriage within a certain large community). But within this large community there were certain groups which were prohibited for marriage to a person belonging to another group of the same caste or community (i. e. the principle of exogamy. operated within the large community itself). The Hir. gṛ. I. 19. 2, Gobhila gṛ. III. 4. 4, Āp. Dh. S. II. 5. 11. 15 require that the bride to be chosen must not belong to the same gotra as that of the bridegroom. They are all silent about the sameness of pravara. Gaut. IV. 2., Vas. Dh. S. VIII. 1, Mānava gṛ. I. 7. 8, Vārāha gṛ. 9, Śaṅkha¹⁰³⁶ Dh. S. forbid marriage with a girl whose *pravara* (or *ārṣeya*) is the same as that of the bridegroom; but they say nothing about the prohibition against the sameness of gotra. It is somewhat remarkable that some of the gṛhyasūtras like Āśv. and Pār. say not a word about sameness of *gotra* and *pravara*. Viṣṇu Dh. S. 24. 9, Vaik. III. 2, Yāj. I. 53, Nārada (*strīpuṁsa*, verse 7), Vedavyāsa II. 2 and many others prohibit sameness of gotra as well as of pravara. Gobhila gṛ. III. 4. 5, Manu III. 5, Vaik. III. 2 and Āp. Dh. S. II. 5. 11. 16 require that the bride must not be a *sapiṇḍa* or blood relation of the mother of the bridegroom; while Gaut. IV. 2, Vas. VIII. 2, Viṣṇu Dh. S. 24. 10, Vārāha gṛ. 9, Śaṅkha Dh. (quoted above), Yāj. I. 53 and others restrict the prohibition against marrying a sapiṇḍa girl to seven degrees on the father's side and five degrees on the mother's side. There were others like the Vedavyāsa-smṛti which not only prohibited marriage with a girl who had the same gotra as the bridegroom's, but prohibited marriage with a girl whose mother's gotra was the same as the bridegroom's.