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Research Communications RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS Note: The Journal ofAsian and African Studies invites communications in the form of articles and reports about ongoing research, not exceeding 5,000 words, both in the emperical and theoretical fields. 1. Preferential Kin Marriage in India D. A. CHEKKII Karnatak University, Dharwar, India Among the Lingayats2 of South India, a man prefers or is expected or even has a special right to marry his own or classificatory mother's brother's daughter or father's sister's daughter (bilateral cross-cousin marriage) or sister's daughter (uncle-niece marriage). Marriages among other preferential kin are allowed except those persons related either actually or by analogy as parent and child, or as brother and sister. Among the Lingayats of Kalyan (pseudonym), a sub­ urban fringe of the city of Dharwar in Mysore state, the choice of mates for children is the responsibility of the parents and kin group. The average age at first marriage of girls is twelve years. Matrilateral and patrilateral cross-cousin marriages and uncle-niece marriages are not merely permitted but are regarded as desirable. Such marital unions renew and reinforce the existing kinship system, thereby the distinction between relatives by blood and by marriage is often blurred. Most men ex­ pressed that marriage with a sister's daughter or with a cross-cousin are prefer­ able to any other. And the saying often goes that one's sister's daughter or cross­ cousins are a person's rightful spouse. According to the people of Kalyan the first choice in the selection of mates should fall on these preferred kin. Priorities in choice of mates A generation ago parents almost invariably looked for a bride among the sister's daughters or cross-cousins of their son. In order of preference a person would like to marry his own sister's daughter in the first instance or his own mother's brother's daughter. Otherwise the choice will be his father's sister's daughter. Marriages with daughters of classificatory sister, mother's brother or father's sister will follow in the absence of the real ones. However, in the prefer­ ential choice again the priority was given to the mother's brother's daughter, and it was mostly with them that betrothals or marriages occured during one's childhood. Moreover, a girl's cross-cousin generally has the preference over any other suitor, and if no one is willing to marry her, it is the responsibility of her mother's brother or father's sister to find her a husband among their sons. Likewise, 'who else shall give a bride to a crippled boy except his own elder sister?' is the proverb often quoted. Mrs. Irawati Karve3 reports that in this part of the country (Karnatak) The author is presently on the faculty of the Department of Sociology, University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 2 Ishwaran, K., "Lingayat Kinship," Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. I No.2, April 1966, pp. 147-160. 3 Karve, Irawati, Kinship Organisation in India, Poona, Deccan College, 1953, p. 188. Jouma1 of Asian and African Studies III 19 288 JOURNAL OF ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES 'among non-Brahmin castes (Hindu as well as Lingayat) there is a taboo against a man's marriage with the younger sister's daughter. The rule is that a man marries his elder sister's daughter and never his younger sister's daughter.' For Mrs. Karve even very minute and exhaustive enquiries did not reveal a single exception to this rule. However, in the present investigations! among the Lingayats ofKalyan, I recorded two cases of men marrying their younger sister's daughter. Enquiries revealed that although there is a general rule that a man can marry his elder sister's daughter and such marriages do occur in greater frequency, there is no rigid taboo as such to marry his younger sister's daughter. In reality, however, such marriages are rare indeed because of a wide disparity in age that normally exists between a man and his younger sister's daughter. In Kalyan, as among the Tswana of Africa,2 however, cousin marriages are not compulsory. The claims of relationship can be offset by the lack of other desirable qualities, and if either the girl or her parents fail to reach satisfactory standards of conduct and character a wife will be sought somewhere else. Her own people, similarly, may refuse to hand her over to some cousin of whom they disapprove or with whose parents they have quarrelled. And, of course, it happens often enough that no suitable cousin is available. In such cases, it is held that a more remote relative should be married, if possible, but there is no special category for whom preference is expressed. Levirate is a taboo. Whereas sororate is practised when a person's wife is dead or barren the wife's (younger) sister being easily considered the most suitable woman to take her place. Being the sister of the deceased wife, she would look after her sister's children as her own, thus creating the least dis­ turbance in the social equilibrium. Recorded genealogies revealed three cases of sororate. This implies that sororate in general is never obligatory. Where the two families were previously related, or if they were on friendly terms, they might agree to substitute another woman for a dead or barren wife; but the wife's people were not bound to provide such a substitute nor the husband to seek one.3 Although polygyny was allowed by the traditional Hindu custom, it appears that normally men did not like to have more than one wife at a time. Only four cases of polygyny were recorded, out of which three happened to be sororal polygyny. It was under special circumstances that when the first wife was barren or gave birth to female children only Ego (male) took to a second wife, preferably first wife's younger sister possibly to minimise the tensions and con­ flicts among co-wives. In any case polygyny is resorted to only in exceptional cases in order to get a male child for the perpetuation of the family line and to attain salvation. But much more common is the practice of inter-marriage between sets of siblings. Genealogies recorded in 115 households of Kalyan revealed sixteen pairs of unions of two brothers marrying (women related as sisters) two sisters. There were three cases of 'exchange marriage', that is, a brother and a sister Chekki, D. A., Kinship and Modernization: Two studies in Urban India, (Unpublished Ph. D. Theses), Dharwar, Karnatak University, 1966. 2 Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. & Forde D. (eds), African Systems of Kinship and Marriage, London, Oxford University Press, 1950, p. 152. 3 Ibid., p. 154. .
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