Page 106 - DSOC402_SOCIOLOGY_OF_KINSHIP_ENGLISH

Sociology of Kinship

Notes The meaning of Hypergamy is to marry a girl of a caste or sub-caste, the groom is obtained
from a higher class family of village. It was most popular in Bengal, where higher class boys are
married to lower class girls. View of Dr. Radhakrishnan is that in India the Anuloma Marriages
were popular up to tenth century. The view of Rizley is that in the beginning the inter-class
marriages were practiced to fulfill the need of woman in Indo-Aryan Breed and as the need was
fulfilled they banned such marriages.

Effects of Anuloma
Demerits

Anuloma marriage has gave rise to many problems in the society. Its demerits are as following:
1. Lack of Grooms in the Higher Class: The lower class society wants to marry their daughter
to a boy of a society which are considered higher, as a result there is lack of grooms for the
girls of higher class and they have to remain unmarried.
2. Lack of Girls in Lower Class: When all the girls of lower class get married in the higher
class, then there is lack of girls for the boys of lower class, and many of the boys have to
remain unmarried.
3. Birth of Polygyny and Polyandry: All persons of lower class wants to marry their daugh-
ters to a higher class boy. In this situation, polygyny will prevail in higher class and on
other hand; due to lack of girls in lower class polyandry will take birth.
4. Groom-price Custom: Persons of lower class want to obtain a groom of higher class which
leads to the lack of boys. In this situation the custom of groom-price (dowry) increases.
5. Mismatch Marriage: Due to Anuloma marriage, sometimes the girls of higher class were
married to an aged or old persons. In Bengal and Bihar, many men of higher families had
hundred wives to whom register is maintained to remember them. Many a time the age of
bride is equal to the age of the daughter of the groom.
6. Increment in Child Widow: Due to Anuloma marriage, many men of higher class have
many wives. Due to death of such men increases child widows in the society.
7. Birth of Child Marriage: In Anuloma marriage every father wants to marry his daughter to
a higher class boy, thus as he gets a higher class boy irrespective of age he marry his daugh-
ter to him. Many time a girl of less than four or five years also get married.
8. Birth of Bride-Price: Due to Anuloma marriage, there is a lack of brides in lower classes
which results to the birth of bride-price.
9. Social Evils: The Anuloma Marriage Custom had given rise to much conservativeness in
the society and many problems in social, family and personal life. Due to lack of marriage
of girls of lower classes many problems of corruption and decline of morality emerge. Due
to lack of arrangement of groom-price by their parents, many girls had suicide feeding up
by social condemnation.

Hypogamy or Pratiloma Marriage

The opposite form of Anuloma marriage is Pratiloma Marriage. In this type of marriage the
bride is of higher class, caste, sub-caste family or dynasty and the groom is of lower class, caste,
sub-caste family or dynasty. By defining this, Kapadia writes, “A man of lower class when
married to a girl of higher class it is called Pratiloma Marriage or Hypogamy”. For example, If
a Brahmin girl is married to a Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra boy then such marriage is called
Pratiloma Marriage or Hypogamy. In this type of marriage the position of girls is lower. Legisla-
tors had badly criticized this type of marriage. The children so born of such marriage is called
“Chandal” or “Nishad”. Hindu Marriage Act, 1949 and 1955, had considered both the Anuloma
and Pratiloma marriage legitimate.

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