18. It is remarkable that there is no trace of the system of Gotras non- gotras in the Vedic times. If the Aryans Aryan ? developed the exogamous system later on in India, could it be due to the existence of a similar system in the more ancient times, or was it borrowed from the exogamy prevailing in Dravidian India? The latter course of events appears to be probable, in some cases the twice born going so far as to adopt the totemistic names of plants, animals, etc., but in the majority of cases substituting the names of rishis and heroes (See pp. 249-252 of the Census of India, 1911, Vol. I; pp. 330, 223, 224, 237, 273, 279, 283 of Vol. II of J. G. Frazer's Totemism and Exogamy). It is of importance to bear in mind that what is called "gotra " is not a family, but a family supposed to have grown into a sept and to have descended from a common ancestor and that it is not confined to only Brahmans, but extends to all the twice-born castes and that a large number of Kshatriyas and Vaishyas claim to belong to the same gotras. Is it possible that so many millions of twice-born in India are descended from one or two dozen rishis or gurus. Or is it possible that the supposed kinship is only spiritual or fictitious? 16. The subject becomes fascinating, but I cannot go further for fear exceeding the limit allotted to this paper before the Science Congress. I may here only refer to Gour's Civil Marriage Bill-Act 3 of 1872 (without a short title) as it will read, if the amendments sketched out by Dr. Gour become law. The proposed amendments are in italics. Preamble. Whereas it is expedient to provide a form of marriage for persons who intend marriage under the provisions of this Act. Section 1. This Act extends to the whole of British India. Section 2. Marriage may be celebrated under this Act between persons who intend marriage under the provisions of this Act upon the following conditions-- (1) neither party must, at the time of the marriage have a husband or wife living ; (2) the man must have completed his age of eighteen years, and the woman her age of fourteen years, according to the Gregorian Calendar; (3) each party must, if he or she has not completed the age of twenty-one years, have obtained the consent of his or her father or guardain to the marriage ; (4) the parties must not be related to each other in any degree of consanguinity or affinity which would, according to any law to which either of them is subject, render a marriage between them illegal. 1st Proviso-No such law or custom other than one relating to consanguinity or affinity, shall prevent them from marrying. 2ND PROVISO-No law or custom as to consanguinity shall prevent them from marrying unless a relationship can be traced between the parties through some common ancestor, who stands to each of them in a nearer relationship than that of great-greatgrand father or great-great-grand mother, or unless one of the parties is the lineal ancestor, or the brother or the sister of some lineal ancestor, of the other. 20. If passed as an enactment by the Indian legislature, it would enable people in India of whatever race, religion or caste marry in utter disregard of endogamy, exogamy or religion. Firstly then what will be the progeny of couples marrying thereunder? Secondly what will be the law of succession applicable to them: the Indian Succession Act which applies to all people in British India except Hindus, Mahomedans and Buddhists or if it be their old law, of which side, if the husband were a Hindu and the wife a non-Hindu say an European or vice versa ? Will the science of ethnology help the legislature or the courts in deciding these questions especially in case of mixed racial communities that are likely to grow up in India, if people take advantage of the new law freely and on a large scale ? MEDIEVAL ENGLAND AND THE OF MODERN INDIA. BY JIVANJI JAMSHEDJI MODI, B.A., Ph.D., C.I.E. Introduction. I. It is often well said, that human nature is the same. That being the case, we find, that in one period or another of the growth of civilization of a people, many of its customs and manners are similar to those of some other people at some period of their existence. An Englishman of the present twentieth century, when he comes to India, and sees, hears, or reads of the customs and manners of the Indians of the present day, feels a little surprised at finding many things strange. But, if he will cast an eye upon a picture of the social customs and manners of his own people of about the fifteenth century, he will find, that in the modern social life of the people of India, he sees, as it were, a reflex of the social life of his ancestors of England about 500 years ago. The object of this paper is to give a brief picture of some social customs and manners of medieval England and compare that picture with that of the social customs and manners of the present-day India. The subject of the paper is suggested to me by a recent interesting book, "The Pastons and their England "I wherein, the author gives us a peep into the social life of the England of the 15th century. Of course, India being more a continent than a country, and a continent of people of various The Pastons and their England, by H. S. Bennett, of the Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1922. The Pastons were a family who claimed their descent from a Norman ancestor. Mr. Bennett has based his book principally on the letters of this family which lived in the 15th century. creeds and colours, the customs and manners of one part differ, at times, from those of another part. But generally, what we may call, the household life is the same in its broad aspects. In this paper, I will speak, of what I know of the social life of the Parsecs, but, I think, that, in what I will say, my Hindu friends will find much of a reflex of their household life also. Though the customs and manners of the Parsees have undergone a great change during the last 50 years, still there are a number of Parsee families in Bombay, and many in the mofussil Parsee centres like Naosari, Surat and Broach, whose customs and manners are still of the old type reminding us of old England. In this paper, I will speak of Medieval England's social life, as described in the above book, under the headings of the three principal events of a man's life, viz., (1) Birth, (2) Marriage and (3) Death. II. (1) Birth. In England of the fifteenth century, they held some festivities for the birth of a child, even before birth, in anticipation of the good auspicious event. A rich family held a "large and festive gathering.. consequent on the expected birth." This occasion was held to be a proper occasion when the family's subordinates and dependents expected presents and gifts. Among the Parsees, the occasion of the fifth month of preg nancy, spoken of as panch-masyûn (4) i.e., the occasion of the fifth month of pregnancy, and the occasion of the seventh month, known as Agharni are celebrated with some eclät. That is the custom also among the Hindus and more especially among the Hindus of Gujarat. It must be noted, that these days are observed as days of rejoicing only in the case of first pregnancy and not in those of the subsequent ones. The lady, who is enceinte, is presented with a suit of clothes by her parents and her husband's parents and there is a mutual exchange of sweets and dinners. I remember a cousin of mine celebrating the Agharni (seventh month's occasion) of his wife with a great banquet where the guests were mostly ladies. His house being small for the large number of invited guests, he celebrated the occasion at a public wâdi (banquet-place) where a band of music played for the whole day. In the sweets of the Agharni day, a kind of sweet in the form of a cocoanut plays an important part. The lady is made to hold these five or seven cocoanut-form sweets in the fold of her sâri. The cocoanut seems to signify the head of a man, and the signification of the ceremony seems to be, that it is wished that the lady may have about five or seven children.' Coming to the event of Birth itself, we find that Mr. Bennett treats Birth, Marriage and Death under the chapter of Religion He says: "No account of life in medieval England could be complete which failed to recognise the very important part played by religion in these times. Few things, indeed, were more familiar to every man, woman and child, than were the parish church and the parish priest. The parish church was the scene of many of the great events of their lives. There they were baptised, married, and in due course buried. If, therefore, we examine the medieval attitude towards birth, or death, or marriage, we are enabled to understand how immense was the part the Church played in the lives of the people." What Mr. Bennett says of medieval England on the subject of these principal 1 The following Indian story seems to connect cocoanut with the head of a man: An Astrologer once said to a king at a certain time, that the time was so auspicious, that anything sown into ground, even on stony ground, at the time, could grow well and flourish. The king asked Suppose, somebody sows a man's head on a stony ground, will that also grow up as a luxuriant tree ?" "Yes," said the astrologer. Thereupon, the king cut off the head of the astrologer and buried it under a stony piece of ground. The cocoanut palm grew out of it. The head-like form, and the fibres of the nut resembling the hair of a man's head, are believed to signify the head of a man and to suggest the folklore about the cocoanut. 2 Pastons and their England, p. 193., |