Note 15 — A

Exogamy. 4. Agarwâlas follow the strict rules of the Shâstras in regulating the prohibited degrees. “All the sections are strictly exogamous, but the rule of unilateral exogamy is supplemented by provisions forbidding marriage with certain classes of relations. Thus a man may not marry a woman, (a) belonging to his own gotra; (b) descended from his own paternal or maternal grandfather, great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather; (c) descended from his own paternal or maternal aunt; (d) belonging to the grand maternal family (nânihâl) of his own father or mother. He may marry the younger sister of his deceased wife, but not the elder sister, nor may he marry two sisters at the same time. As is usual in such cases, the classes of relations barred are not mutually exclusive. All the agnatic descendants of a man’s three nearest male ascendants are necessarily members of his own gotra, and, therefore, come under class (a) as well as class (b). Again, the paternal and maternal aunt and their descendants are included among the descendants of the paternal and maternal grandfathers, while some of the members of the nânihâl must also come under class (b). The gotra rule is undoubtedly the oldest, and it seems probable that the other prohibited classes may have been added from time to time as experience and the growing sense of the true nature of kinship demonstrated the incompleteness of the primitive rule of exogamy.”15