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).
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