venerated, and on the development of the family
system within the clan, the ancestors of the family were held in
a similar regard, and the feeling extended to the living ancestor
or father, who is treated with the greatest deference in the early
patriarchal family. Even now Hindu boys, though they may be better
educated and more intelligent than their father, will not as a rule
address him at meals unless he speaks to them first, on account of
their traditional respect for him. The regard for the father may be
strengthened by his position as the stay and support of the family,
but could scarcely have arisen solely from this cause.

Dr. Westermarck's view that the origin of exogamy lay in the feeling
against the marriage of persons who lived together, receives support
from the fact that a feeling of kinship still subsists between Hindus
living in the same village, even though they may belong to different
castes and clans. It is commonly found that all the households of a
village believe themselves in a manner related. A man will address
all the men of the generation above his own as uncle, though they may
be of different castes, and the children of the generation below his
own as niece and nephew. When a girl is married, all the old men of
the village call her husband 'son-in-law.' This extends even to the
impure castes who cannot be touched. Yet owing to the fact that they
live together they are considered by fiction to be related. The Gowari
caste do not employ Brahmans for their weddings, but the ceremony is
performed by the _bhanja_ or sister's son either of the girl's father
or the boy's father. If he is not available, any one whom either the
girl's father or the boy's father addresses as _bhanja_ or nephew
in the village, even though he may be no relation and may belong to
another caste, may perform the ceremony as a substitute. Among the
Oraons and other tribes prenuptial intercourse between boys and girls
of the same village is regularly allowed. It is not considered right,
however, that these unions should end in marriage, for which partners
should be sought from other villages. [176] In the Maratha country
the villagers have a communal feast on the occasion of the Dasahra
festival, the Kunbis or cultivators eating first and the members of
the menial and labouring castes afterwards.

74. The large exogamous clans of the Brahmans and Rajputs. The
Sapindas, the _gens_ and the g'enoc.

The Brahmans and Ra