5. Varna and Marriage.
Wherever in the world, phenomena resembling caste are found, there is always a tendency toward maintaining a strong barrier shutting the men of the lower group from the women of the higher group. This barrier often consists of laws, public opinion and perverted ethics.[1] Sentiments maintaining such a barrier are clearly expressed in the rules which all writers on dharma, including our text, give, regarding marriage, courtship, illicit intercourse, and outrage on the woman.
Our text generally approves of a marriage with a person of the same varna, but does not entirely forbid a marriage outside the varna, as later writers have done.
"A Shūdra woman alone (may be) the wife of a Shūdra, She and one of his own (varna, the wives) of a Vaishya. Those two and one of his own (varna, the wives) of a Kshatriya. Those three and one of his own (varna) wives of a Brāhmana."
"A Shūdra woman is not mentioned even in any ancient story (Vrittanta) as the first wife of a Brāhmana or of a Kshatriya, though they lived in great distress."[2]
- ↑ In India a woman of Brāhmana caste living as a mistress of a man of the same caste would not be so much condemned and ostracised as a woman who marries a Shūdra. In the United States, a white woman who marries a negro would be more severely condemned than a woman who would become a prostitute.
- ↑ One of the sources of determining dharma was to follow the conduct of persons virtuous and learned in Scriptures. The knowledge of the conduct of the virtuous which existed in the form of stories was a part of the popular lore. Some of these stories have been incorporated in Mahābhārata.
