A marriage in which
the wife comes from a group with higher social status than the husband.
Such marriages were strictly forbidden in the dharma
literature, and this prohibition illustrates the role of women in determining a
group’s social status.
It is deemed acceptable for women to marry people of higher
social status (hypergamous marriage), because it is believed that they are
improving the status of their group by becoming associated with a higher status
group.
Marriage to a man of lower status was strictly forbidden,
since the exchange of women implies some sort of equality between the two
groups, and thus drags the community’s status
down.
In the dharma literature, hypogamous marriage was known as
pratiloma, “against the hair” (i.e., in an unnatural direction).
For further information see Jadunath Sarkar, A History of
the Dasanami Naga Sanyasis, 1958.
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