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100
SUNANDA Y SHASTRI
SAMBODHI
(4) Anuloma and Pratiloma marriages and social arrangement for their progeny
The Aryan society was divided into four varnas or classes according to the division of labour, intellectual and physical capacity, likings and inclinations etc The one whose profession is learning and teaching was Brahmana Brahmanas were supposed to learn, teach and preserve Vedic tradition by handing it to worthy students The second varna is Ksatriya-the warmor class or ruling class-who would take the responsibility of protection of people, fight enemies etc The Vaisyas were mainly involved in trading-inland and overseas and agriculture The fourth varna-śūdras probably were the labour class people, at times those conquered in the battles and kept to serve three varnas This system was flexible in its early days Later, especially in the smrti penod it became as ngid as could be This flexibility gave birth to the concept of Anuloma and Pratiloma
Anuloma marriage is marriage in direct order of the varnas and Pratiloma is marriage in inverse order of varnas Among the varnas, Brahmanas are supenor, next comes Ksatriya and then Vasya and lastly the Śūdras
Theoretically, all the lawmakers insist on marrying a boy or girl of the same varna" And if the marnage is to be inter-varna then, men are allowed to marry with the women of inferior varna, but women are not allowed to marry men of inferior varna When man marries with the woman of inferior varna, the manage is called Anuloma marrage-marriage in direct order of classes; and if a woman of higher varna marries with the man of inferior varna-then it is pratiloma marriage-marriage in inverse order of varnas
Despite of strict rules and social prohibition, human elements like love and passion always played its role and the rules were not strictly followed Intervarna marriages were disliked by the Smrtıkaras" Sometimes it is interpreted that the rule about marrying a man or woman of the same varna may be for the first marriage only In case, one has to marry again, for the some or the other reason, then man can take wife from other varna (lower) than his own The mixing of varnas is criticised even in Bhagvadgitā19
This rigidity of the varna system gave rise to many social problems The children born of inter-varna marnages were never really accepted in either father's varna, nor the mother's varna These children were supposed to be of different caste than mother and father's The children born through Anuloma
