Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s3.42

c6.s3.42

From the point of view of the caste, the general and curious fact which it is important to bear in mind is the double rule which we stated in the beginning: the prohibition of marriage outside the caste and the obligation of marriage outside the *gotra*. The relationship which prevents marriage is above all agnatic relationship—relationship on the male side. The results of relationship on the female side are always much less prohibitive. In certain cases the obstacles which it sets up are narrowly limited, and castes are cited in which a certain relationship, although distant, on the female side is considered desirable, if not necessary, between the betrothed.¹