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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
Cousin-marriage, i. e. marriage with the maternal uncle's daughter or with a girl related from the mother's side, was a regular custom (chamda ayāra) in the Lața country.1 According to the Avasyaka Cūrṇi, marriage with the maternal uncle's daughter was common in Laṭa and Dakṣinapatha; but it was severely condemned in Uttarapatha. Kumārila Bhaṭṭa also refers to this particular custom while stating that a Dakṣiṇātya is overjoyed to get the hand of the daughter of his maternal uncle. The epigraphs of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa monarchs belonging to the 9th and 10th centuries A. D. also approve of the same practice. Although this type of marriage has been forbidden and even condemned by the Brāhmaṇic law-givers, since it falls in the field of the Sapinda Marriage, yet our author consi-ders it as a natural custom. Many of the rules for the Jaina monks were formulated to restrict them from keeping any contact or begging alms etc. from the maternal uncle's daughter. She has been specifically called garugi or mehuṇiya", as a person was generally supposed to marry his maternal uncle's daughter in the Lața country.
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Marriage in exchange, i. e. marrying by giving one's own sister in return, was also common. In such marriages it was. believed that one's sister would remain happy if he behaved well with the sister of the other. Such types of marriages are still in vogue in certain parts of India.
1. छंदो आयारो गंमा जहा लाडाणं माउलदुहिया, माउसस्स धूया अगंमा - NC. 1, p. 57. 2. Ava. Cu. II, p. 81.
3. स्वमातुलसुतां प्राप्य दक्षिणात्यस्तु तुष्यति — Kumārila Bhatta, quoted by Govinda Svāmī in the commentry on
Baudhayanadharmasutra
(Mysore ed.), p. &..
4. Combay Plates of Govindaraja IV', EI. VII, p. 38.
5. Manusmrti, 11. 172-73.
Jain Education International
6. NC. 2, p. 14.
7. मेहुणित्ति माउल पिउस्सियधाता - NC. 4, p. 135.
8. NC. 3, p. 432.
9. NC. 3, p. 432.
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