Rights in the Family
Appendix 2. (1139).
We must recall what was said about the state of domestic society in the East, especially amongst the Indians (cf. SP, 337-344). Note here:
1. This law of the sixth degree applied only to the three most noble castes, that is, to the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas, not to the ignoble Sûdra class. This shows that the need to prohibit marriage amongst blood-relations was felt in so far as some noble race preserved the memories of their ancestors. The text of the Mânava-Dharmasâstra, according to the translation of A. Loiseleur Deslongchamps, says: `A woman who does not descend to the sixth degree from one of the maternal or paternal ancestors of the future husband, and does not belong to the family of his father or mother through a common origin indicated by the name of her family, is wholly fitting in marriage and carnal union for a man of the first three classes' (bk. 3: 5. Cf. also the Digest of Hindu Law, bk. 3, p. 531).
2. That such long-lasting traditions about the ancestors was preserved by means of religious ceremonies which commemorated the elders for seven generations (these sacred relationships were called Sapindas or Samonadakas). `According to the laws of Manu which we have quoted, the relationship called Sapinda (that is, the relationship of people bound together by the offering of rice cakes - pindas) ceases with the seventh person or with the sixth ascending or descending degree. The relationship called samonadaka, proper to those who are bound by means of the same offering of water, ceases WHEN THEIR ORIGIN AND FAMILY NAME ARE NO LONGER KNOWN' (bk. 5: 60).
3. These last words, and the definition that Indian commentators give of the relationship called samonadaka (`that which ceases only when parental relationships leave no trace in human memory'), contain the true philosophical reason for the impediment of relationship in the transversal line. It is curious that this reason, which is totally lacking in modern legislations, should be so clearly expressed in the very ancient monuments of India. This proves that the reason for laws and institutions is known better by those closer to their origins, as I noted in The Summary Cause for the Stability or Downfall of Human Societies, 43-49.