Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s6.12

c6.s6.12

It has already been mentioned that various castes show, by the side of very severe rules of exogamy on the paternal side, a peculiar tendency in favour of alliance with a relatively near kinswoman on the maternal side.² A rarer case is that in which polygamy is punished by exclusion.³ The custom of *levirate* authorized, in the absence of male issue, the husband's brother or, in his default, a very near kinsman, to take his place after his death, or even in his lifetime, in order to give his wife an heir. This custom, curious because of its wide diffusion, is very characteristic on account of the importance laid by the ancient family constitution on the continuity through successive males of the cult of the family.⁴ It is of great antiquity in India,¹ and survives in an attenuated form and deflected from its original significance in places where it is customary to marry the widow to her deceased husband's younger brother.² Many castes practise it in this form, but much more common among them is the absolute prohibition of second marriage for widows.