Blunt, Edward : The caste system of northern India: with special reference to the united provinces of Agra and Oudh (London, 1931)

CASTE, SUBCASTE, AND MARRIAGE

(c) The Hindu ‘table’ of prohibited kin. Various
castes have various such tables; in some it replaces the
restrictions of exogamy, in some it reinforces them. The
effect is generally to forbid marriage with certain kinds
of relative who are not included in the exogamous group.

(d) The custom of hypergamy, by which a bride may
not marry a man of lower social rank than herself.

(e) The custom of virgin marriage, which forbids a
man to marry a widow.

Save for certain quite exceptional castes, the first of
these restrictions is universal. Either the second or the
third operates in every caste; generally both operate to-
gether. The fourth is common. The fifth applies to
perhaps one-third of the population, i.e. to most higher
castes. Endogamy and exogamy both involve segmen-
tation of the caste : the other three restrictions do not.
It will be convenient, therefore, to examine, on broad
lines, the general nature of caste segmentation before
considering the various restrictions on marriage. For
various reasons, it is convenient to deal with these in
the following order :

Exogamy;

Hypergamy;

Endogamy ;

Prohibited kin ;

Virgin marriage ;

Other marriage customs and restrictions.1

A. GENERAL NATURE OF TITE SEGMENTATION OF CASTE

At the census of 1891 the subdivisions of caste were
recorded in detail, and the resultant lists,
4. The sufodm-published with the report, contain thous-

sions of caste ands of names of every kind. The Jat
and Ahir, for instance, were each respon-
sible for over 1,700 entries; the Kurmi for nearly 1,500.

1 The last three are dealt with in Chapter IV. The actual rites and
ceremonies carried out at marriage are not considered, being outside
the scope of this book. They are fully described in Crooke’s Tribes
and Castes of the N.-W. P. and Oudh.

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