+* Krishna's clan *+ - Page 6

One thing I noticed - all these cousin marriages were in SB, and only the Arjun-Subhadra one fell within MB. And Nakula-Karenamati. The latter was a case of the offspring of 2 sister's marrying, unless one considers Nakula as not Kunti's son for genetic purposes (which is the main, if not only, root of objection to such unions). In case of Arjun-Subhadra, what restrictions were there? Arjun was Kunti's son, no matter how one slices or dices it, while Subhadra was Vasudev's daughter, regardless of whether she was born to Devaki or Rohini.

Some of the other cousin marriage stories going around seemed invented - Abhimanyu-Vatsala and Parikshit-Madravati. Parikshit's wife was Iravati, who was not connected to Matsya (while the claim about Madravati was that she was Uttar's daughter, which is impossible, since Uttar was a boy, and probably unmarried and childless. In fact, the Virata dynasty was one of the ones that was completely wiped out in the war).

Incidentally, kshatriya dharam requires that there be 7(!) generations of separation b/w a husband and wife for such a marriage to be legal. But the above cases seemed to be clear violations of that rule.

1. Whether there were cousin marriages in ancient times
2. Whether, such marriages were in accordance with Manu Smriti

Two types of cousin marriages were prevalent as we have seen:

Children of Brother- Sister (whether son of brother marrying sister's daughter or vice versa) getting married seems to have been common. Examples : Arjuna-Subhadra, Krishna=- Bhadra, Krishna - Mitravindya, etc

However at no cost were the children of two brothers entered into wedlock. (I am not sure about children of sisters, though- are there any stray examples?)

However, Manu Smriti (MAnav Dharmashastra) does not approve of such marriages. (Chapter 11, verse 172, 173). There is a penance prescribed as a deterrent.

While I know, that communities in Northern India, still follow this religiously, somehow, in South India this system has not only been followed, but flourished, till recently. Among some of the Keralite castes, which followed the Marumakatayam (Matrilineal system of inheritance) this kind of cousin - alliances were more common than exception.

I read somewhere (in a Rajput wiki site) that kshatriyas have to have 7 generations of separation. Have you seen that anywhere, and are there similar prescribed numbers for Brahmans, Vaisyas and Shudras?

But to the best of my knowledge nothing more is known about Rukmi, though in HV, he gets lot more dialogues before Rukmini's swayamwar.