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PREFACE. “Pravara” and “Gotra,” are terms familiar to all Brâhmans; but their true import and their ethnological importance are so little understood by the modern generation that I have thought it proper to publish a collection of the whole literature on the subject, consisting of the Sútras of A'švaláyana, A'pastamba, and Baudhấyana, the Matsya-Purâna, and the exegetical works thereon by Purushottama, Kainalákara, and Abhinava-Madhaváchárya.
The works I have collected seem to me to show clearly that all the Dvijas, or the twice-born classes, consisting of the Brâhmans, the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas, are descended from the four eminent Rishis supposed to be the sons of Brahmâ, and that the existing distinctions of caste among them are of a later origin and seem to have resulted from the professions pursued and the methods of life adopted by their descendants. There is also evidence to show that in ancient times there was nothing to prevent a Kshatriya or a Vaisya from becoming a Brahman and vice-versa. These are facts worth being remembered by all desirous of establishing universal brotherhood.
The present restrictions as regards prohibited degrees for marriages do not appear to have been in force among the ancients in the pre-vedic days : since the days of the seven Rishis who chanted some of the hymns of the Rigveda, the ancients appear to have become divided into certain family groups, and within each of these groups all the men were reputed to be brothers and all the women sisters, and inter-marriage between them is strictly forbidden. All Bráhmans are now divided into 18 groups, each group having a common ancestry, and a marriage between persons belonging to one and the same group is looked upon as incestuous. This rule is sufficient in itself to narrow materially the field of matrimonial choice, but to this has to be added various other restrictions of a comparatively modern date based on considerations of religion, clan and maternal consanguinity. Among Bráhmans, therefore, in contracting matrimonial alliances there is little scope for individual preferences,
