Hypergamous Marriage

A marriage in which the wife comes
from a group with lower social status
than the husband. Although the ideal
Hindu marriage is between a man and
woman of equal social status, hypergamous marriage was admitted as a possibility in the dharma literature, although
it was not encouraged. In most cases, it
was specified that a man’s first wife
should be of equal social status, but that
he was then permitted to marry women
of lower status.
In modern India, where the predominant form of marriage is still arranged
marriage, most marriages are still
between men and women of equal status. However, a hypergamous marriage
is likely to generate less opposition than
a hypogamous marriage, where a
woman marries a man from a lower status group. In the dharma literature,
hypergamous marriage was known as
anuloma, “with the hair” (i.e., in the natural direction).