[Advaita-l] tat gotra

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

This sort of a short-cut satisfies the letter of the law, so to speak. The 
bride gets adoped by her maternal uncle or aunt prior to marriage, so
that she effectively changes gotra twice within a short period of time!
It is a matter of suiting one's convenience while paying lip-service to
the dharma-SAstra.
 
In addition to a stricture against same gotra marriages, there are also
rules against sa-piNDa marriages. That is to say, the two individuals
entering into a marriage should not share common ancestry within a
few generations (three or five or seven generations, depending on
which authority is followed). However, in south India, this is routinely
ignored and cross-cousin marriages are frequent. Even Apastambha
mentions this as an exception to the general rule against closeness
in sapiNDa ancestors, so this is an age-old custom.
 
>From the perspective of diversity in the gene pool and how that may
affect future generations, cross-cousin marriages carry significant risk,
A sa-gotra (but not sa-piNDa) marriage may not be too problematic. 
However, if adhering to dharmaSAstra is important to the people
involved and their families, then alternatives should be sought.
 
Regards,
Vidyasankar

> It is also said that sometimes a girl is taken in 'adoption' by someone
> belonging to a different gotra and thereby she gets that new gotra. After
> that she is even married to someone who has the same gotra that she was
> actually born into.
> 
> Will someone comment on the appropriateness of this practice?
> 
> Regards,
> subrahmanian.v