History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.669

v4.c63.t2.669

From Gaut., Manu, Bṛ., Kāt. and other writers quoted above it follows that the customs and usages of which account has to be taken are those of districts (deśa or janapada), towns and villages, castes, families, guilds or corporations or groups (gaṇa, śreṇī, saṅgha, naigama, varga). A few words on each of these and on usages of *gotras* and *śākhās* will be said later on and a few illustrations of each will be given. But first of all certain preliminary observations have to be made about customs in general. The medieval writers on Dharmaśāstra make it clear that customs that depart from the generally received smṛti prescriptions must be strictly construed and that they cannot be extended on the ground of analogy to other matters outside the specific acknowledged customs. For example, both the Sm. C. (I. 71) and the Smṛtimuktāphala¹⁷¹³ (on Varṇāśrama p. 31) say that, though one's maternal uncle's daughter can be married (by custom) yet one's mother's sister or mother's sister's daughter cannot be married, because popular sentiment is opposed to the latter kind of marriages and popular sentiment has to be respected as Manu declares (in IV. 176). Similarly the Saṁskārakaustubha¹⁷¹⁴ and the Dharmasindhu provide that where there is a local or family usage for narrowing down the limits of sapiṇḍa relationship in marriage, only those who belong to that locality or family can avail themselves of such narrowing down, but if a person in a different locality or belonging to a different family were to follow the practice of narrowing down the sapiṇḍa relationship, he would incur blame. Owing to the vastness of Bharatavarṣa it was recognised that what was sadācāra in one country would not be so in another, as is noted by the Par. M. (I. 2. p. 65) in relation to marriage with one's maternal uncle's daughter.¹⁷¹⁵