The practice of hypergamy is, or was until recently, common among
Brahmans. This is the rule by which the social estimation of a
family is raised if its girls are married into a class of higher
social status than its own. Members of the superior classes will take
daughters from the lower classes on payment usually of a substantial
bride-price, but will not give their daughters to them. According
to Manu, men of the higher castes were allowed to take wives from
the lower ones but not to give daughters to them. The origin of the
custom is obscure. If caste was based on distinctions of race, then
apparently the practice of hypergamy would be objectionable, because
it would destroy the different racial classes. If, on the other
hand, the castes consisted of groups of varying social status, the
distinction being that those of the lower ones could not participate
in the sacramental or communal meals of the higher ones, then the
marriage of a daughter into a higher group, which would carry with
it participation at the sacramental marriage feast of this group,
might well be a coveted distinction. The custom of hypergamy prevails
somewhat largely in northern India between different subcastes, groups
of different social status in the same subcaste, and occasionally
even between different castes. The social results of hypergamy, when
commonly practised, are highly injurious. Men of the higher subcastes
get paid for marrying several wives, and indulge in polygamy, while
the girls of the higher subcastes and the boys of the lower ones
find it difficult and sometimes even impossible to obtain husbands
and wives. The custom attained its most absurd development among the
Kulin Brahmans of eastern Bengal, as described by Sir H. Risley. [408]
Here the Brahmans were divided by a Hindu king, Ballal Sen, into
two classes, the Kulin (of good family), who had observed the entire
nine counsels of perfection; and the Srotriya, who, though regular
students of the Vedas, had lost sanctity by intermarrying with families
of inferior birth. The latter were further subdivided into three
classes according to their degree of social purity, and each higher
class could take daughters from the next one or two lower ones. The
doctrine known as Kula-gotra was developed, whereby the reputation of
a family depended on the character of the marriages made by its female
members. In describing the results of the system Sir H. Risley states:
"The rush of competition for Kulin husbands on the part of the inferior
classes became acute. In order to dispose of the surplus of women in
the higher groups polygamy was resorted to on a very large scale:
it was popular with the Kulins because it enabled them to make a
handsome income by the accident of their birth; and it was accepted
by the parents of the girls concerned as offering the only means of
complying with the requirements of the Hindu religion. Tempted by a
_pan_ or premium, which often reached the sum of two thousand rupees,
Swabhava Kulins made light of their _kul_ and its obligations, and
married girls, whom they left after the ceremony to be taken care of by
their parents. Matrimony became a sort of profession, and the honour
of marrying a girl to a Kulin is said to have been so highly valued
in eastern Bengal that as soon as a boy was ten years old his friends
began to discuss his matrimonial prospects, and before he was twenty
he had become the husband of many wives of ages varying from five to
fifty." The wives were commonly left at home to be supported by their
parents, and it is said that when a Kulin Brahman had a journey to
make he usually tried to put up for the night at the house of one of
his fathers-in-law. All the marriages were recorded in the registers
of the professional Ghataks or marriage-brokers, and each party was
supplied with an extract. On arrival at his father-in-law's house the
Kulin would produce his extract showing the date on which his marriage
took place; and the owner of the house, who was often unfamiliar with
the bridegroom's identity, would compare it with his own extract. When
they agreed he was taken in and put up for the night, and enjoyed the
society of his wife. The system thus entailed the greatest misery to
large numbers of women, both those who were married to husbands whom
they scarcely ever saw, and those of the higher classes who got no
husbands at all. It is now rapidly falling into abeyance. Hypergamy
is found in the Central Provinces among the subcastes of Kanaujia
Brahmans. The Sarwaria subcaste, which is the highest, takes daughters
from Kanaujias and Jijhotias, and the Kanaujias take them from the
Jijhotias. These and other subcastes such as the Khedawals are also
often divided into two groups of different status, the higher of
which takes daughters from the lower. Usually the parents of the
girl pay a liberal bridegroom-price in money or ornaments. It has
never, however, been carried to the same length here as in Bengal,
and two, or in some cases three, wives are the limit for a man of
the higher classes. One division of Kanaujias is called the Satkul or
seven families, and is the highest. Other Kanaujias, who are known as
Pachhadar, pay substantial sums for husbands for this group, and it is
reported that if such a marriage takes place and the bridegroom-price
is not paid up, the husband will turn his wife out and send her home
to her father. Certain subcastes of Sunars also have hypergamy and,
as between different castes, it exists between the Dangis and Rajputs,
pure Rajputs being held willing to take daughters in marriage from
the highest clans of Dangis.