DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31218#0057
CASTE, SUBCASTE, AND MARRIAGE
B. EXCGAMY AND ITYPERGAMY
1 The exogamous group may be defined as a group of
persons related, or who believe themselves
13. Exogamy to be related, by blood, between whom
intermarriage is forbidden. The relatives
to whom such a prohibition applies will vary according
as descent is traced through the father and the mother :
in Northern India we have only the former case to
consider.
The Buddhist records show that the exogamous group
amongst the Aryans was the gotra, or
14. The exogamous g™uP of agnates : amongst the Dravi-
groups of eariy clians, the totem-group or the village.
indian soaety j yjie g0ira was an exaggerated family, a
group of relatives tracing descent from the
same ancestor. Whatever be the true origin of totem-
ism, members of totem groups would regard themselves
as relatives. We know little of the nature of a primitive
Dravidian village, but we may perhaps surmise that the
idea of the village as an exogamous group dates back
to the time when a village was a collection of a few huts
in a jungle clearing, built ancl inhabited by a group of
relatives.
It is usual to write of the gotra as peculiar to the
Brahman caste; but the Buddhist literature
I5' jile Erahman shows that it was an Aryan and not a
gotra2 purely Brahmanical institution. The
Brahmanical legend names eight original
golras descended from the eight sons of Brahma, who are
known as golrakara rishis; they occupy, as Mr. Crooke
says, much the same position as the sons of Jacob did
amongst the Jews. Only one indubitably descended
from such a rishi, could found a gotra. To these eight,
were added ten ‘Kshatriya’ gotras, founded by Kshatri-
yas who became Brahmans, as well as several thousand
other gotras founded by descendants of the eight gotra-
1 For theories of the origin of exogamy see Crooke, Trihes and Castes,
Introduction, Chapter IV; and more modern books such as Frazer’s
Totemism and Exogamy and Hartland’s Primitive Paternity.
2 Cf. /. A. S. B. Vol. III (1903).
43
B. EXCGAMY AND ITYPERGAMY
1 The exogamous group may be defined as a group of
persons related, or who believe themselves
13. Exogamy to be related, by blood, between whom
intermarriage is forbidden. The relatives
to whom such a prohibition applies will vary according
as descent is traced through the father and the mother :
in Northern India we have only the former case to
consider.
The Buddhist records show that the exogamous group
amongst the Aryans was the gotra, or
14. The exogamous g™uP of agnates : amongst the Dravi-
groups of eariy clians, the totem-group or the village.
indian soaety j yjie g0ira was an exaggerated family, a
group of relatives tracing descent from the
same ancestor. Whatever be the true origin of totem-
ism, members of totem groups would regard themselves
as relatives. We know little of the nature of a primitive
Dravidian village, but we may perhaps surmise that the
idea of the village as an exogamous group dates back
to the time when a village was a collection of a few huts
in a jungle clearing, built ancl inhabited by a group of
relatives.
It is usual to write of the gotra as peculiar to the
Brahman caste; but the Buddhist literature
I5' jile Erahman shows that it was an Aryan and not a
gotra2 purely Brahmanical institution. The
Brahmanical legend names eight original
golras descended from the eight sons of Brahma, who are
known as golrakara rishis; they occupy, as Mr. Crooke
says, much the same position as the sons of Jacob did
amongst the Jews. Only one indubitably descended
from such a rishi, could found a gotra. To these eight,
were added ten ‘Kshatriya’ gotras, founded by Kshatri-
yas who became Brahmans, as well as several thousand
other gotras founded by descendants of the eight gotra-
1 For theories of the origin of exogamy see Crooke, Trihes and Castes,
Introduction, Chapter IV; and more modern books such as Frazer’s
Totemism and Exogamy and Hartland’s Primitive Paternity.
2 Cf. /. A. S. B. Vol. III (1903).
43