Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s3.38

c6.s3.38

Exogamy on the maternal side varies very much in scope. Castes or tribes may be cited which, beside and below the *gotras*, have smaller groups for the purpose, it seems, of delimiting exogamy on the maternal side.² In any case, the impediments resulting from the *gotra* are further complicated by a table of prohibited degrees. The *gotra* itself varies according to caste, locality, and time. It is, all things considered, very much more comprehensive than that in which are embodied among us the surviving remnants of exogamic reservations. Marriage is forbidden between betrothed persons who stand in the relationship denoted in Sanskrit by the word *sapinḍa*. This relationship extends to the sixth degree if the common ancestor is a man; if a woman, opinions differ: prohibition comprises according to some six degrees, according to others four only.¹ Commentators have reckoned that on an exhaustive calculation this rule excludes marriage in the case of 2,121 possible relationships. In the usages, the variants and the uncertainties to which they are subject, there is a fine source of hair-splitting, academic discussion; it is easy to imagine how it has appealed to the Hindu experts! It has no attraction for us and only an indirect bearing on the question with which we are concerned.²