Page 102 - DSOC402_SOCIOLOGY_OF_KINSHIP_ENGLISH

Sociology of Kinship

Notes 8. Security of Professional Knowledge: There is a traditional profession of every caste. En-
dogamy was also encouraged due to wish of keeping the professional knowledge secret.
Besides above reasons, strictly following of rules of endogamy had been considerably increased
further due to personal attachment towards his own caste, fear of ousting from the caste and
strictness of caste panchayat and village panchayat regarding caste rules etc. Due to these rule of
endogamy, on one hand some benefits were provided to the Hindu Society whereas some losses
also occurred on other hand. Due to this the region of contact of the people became limited, nar-
row mindedness has revived, mutual hatred, blame and bitterness had increased, the sentiment
of regionalism is also developed, nepotism increased, professional knowledge got limited in a
group. Due to all these reasons the progress of Indian society was hindered, but in modern time
due to development of urbanization, industrialization, means of transport and communication
and establishment of solitary families, the rules of endogamy is becoming fainted. The constitu-
tion regarding marriage has also acknowledged the inter-class and inter-caste marriages. Even
though, the moral strength and social prohibition is so dominating that the rules of endogamy
cannot be totally renounced.

In the view to control the selection of life-mates, Hindu religious scripts had
ascertained some rules about endogamy and exogamy to regulate the Hindu
marriage.

II. Exogamy
Exogamy means that a person has to marry out of the group that he belongs to. Reverse writes,
“From exogamy that exchange is percepted, in which it is necessary for a member of one so-
cial group to search a life-mate in any other social group”. In Hindus according to the rules of
exogamy a person should marry out of his family, gotra, pravar, pind and caste. In tribes, it is
prohibited for mutual marriage among the people belonging to one totem. The rules regarding
gotra, pravar and pind were always indefinite. In this reference Prabhu has written, “From the
time of its origin to every era, the real meaning and conception of the three words ‘gotra’, ‘pra-
var’, and ‘pind’ has been so widely changed and modified regarding the rules of exogamy that
to say anything about its fundamental meaning became impossible”. Here we will discuss in
brief about the forms of exogamy popular among Hindus —

A. Gotra Exogamy
In Hindus, marriage in a same gotra is prohibited. The general meaning of gotra is a group of
that people who are produced from one ancestral sage. According to “Satyasharh Hiranyakeshi
Srotsutra”, the progenies of the eight sages i.e. Vishwamitra, Jamadgani, Bhardwaj, Gautam,
Atri, Vashishtha, Kashyap and Agastya are called with the name of gotra. In Chhandogya
Upnishad, the word ‘gotra’ is used as in the meaning of family. The word ‘gotra’ has three or
four meanings; gaushala, group of cows, fort and mountain etc. In this way, people living on a
place or region are prohibited to marry among themselves. The literal meaning of gotra is Gau
+ tra means the place where cows are tied, means stockade or the group who serves cows. The
people whose cows are tied on a place, a moral relation were established among themselves
and probably they may also have blood relations. Thus they do not marry among themselves.
Vigyaneshwar had said explaining the meaning of gotra, that the name famous in dynasty
tradition is called gotra. In this way, marrying by the members of a gotra to a member of some
other gotra is called Gotra Exogamy.

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