Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 61

CLOSE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIPS
21
allied to them, and the nearer the relationship the more
widower is remarried
easily are marriages contracted.
to his deceased wife's sister, an uncle marries his niece,
and a first cousin his first cousin. Persons so related
possess an exclusive privilege of intermarrying, upon the
A
ground of such relationship and, if they choose, they
can prevent any other union and enforce their own pre-
ferential right, however old, unsuited, infirm, and poor
they may be 1
In this connexion, however, several strange and ridiculous
An uncle may marry the daughter
distinctions are made.
of his sister, but in no case may he marry the daughter of
his brother.
A brother's children may marry a sister's
children, but the children of two brothers or of two sisters
may not intermarry. Among descendants from the same
stock the male line always has the right of contracting
marriage with the female line
but the children of the
;
.
;
same line may never intermarry.
The reason given for this custom
is that children of the
those of the female line, continue from
generation to generation to call themselves brothers and
sisters for as long a time as it is publicly recognized that
they spring from the same stock. A man would be marry-
ing his sister, it would be said, if the children of either the
male or the female line intermarried amongst themselves
whereas the children of the male line do not call the children
of the female line brothers and sisters, and vice versa, but
call each other by special names expressive of the relation-
ship.
Thus a man can, and even must, marry the daughter
of his sister, but never the daughter of his brother.
A
male first cousin marries a female first cousin, the daughter
of his maternal aunt
but in no case may he marry the
daughter of his paternal uncle.
This rule is universally and invariably observed by all
castes, from the Brahmin to the Pariah.
It is obligatory
on the male line to unite itself with the female line. Agree-
ably to this a custom has arisen which so far as I know
is peculiar to the Brahmins.
They are all supposed to
know the gotram or stock from which they spring that is
male
line, as also
;
;
:
1
This custom
—Ed.
is
gradually giving
way now amongst
the higher castes.