und to maintain her.
It is remarkable that the professional concubinage of the dancing-girl
does not involve degradation, if it be with a person of the same caste.
This suggests that whatever may be the function of caste, it is not a
safe guardian of public morality. The rules as to prohibited degrees in
marriage used to be very strict, but they are now relaxed. An act of
1856 legalized remarriage by widows in all the castes, with a
conditional forfeiture of the deceased husband's estate, unless the
husband has expressly sanctioned the second marriage. The later Indian
Marriage Act was directed against the iniquitous child marriages; it
requires a _minimum_ age. In many ways the theoretical inferiority of
the Sudra absolves him from the restraints which the letter of the law
lays on the higher castes. Thus a Sudra may adopt a daughter's or
sister's son, though this is contrary to the general rule that the
adopter should be able to marry the mother of the adopted person. The
rule requiring the person adopted to be of the same caste and _gotra_ or
family as the adopter is also dispensed with in the case of Sudras. In
fact, it is only a married person whom a Sudra may not adopt. As regards
inheritance the Sudra does not come off so well in competition with the
other castes. "The sons of a Brahamana in the several tribes have four
shares or three or two or one; the children of a Kshatriya have three
portions or two or one; and those of a Vaisya take two parts or one."
This refers to the case permitted by law, and not unknown in practice,
of a Brahman having four wives of different castes, a Kshatriya three,
and so on. But all sons of inferior caste are excluded from property
coming by gift to the father; and a Sudra son is also excluded from land
acquired by purchase. It must be recollected, however, that under an act
of 1850, _loss_ of caste no longer affects the capacity to inherit or to
be adopted. In cases of succession _ab intestato_ on failure of the
preceptor, pupil, and fellow-student (heirs called by the Hindu law
after relatives), a priest, or any Brahman, many succeed. Where a Sudra
is the only son of a Brahman, the Sapinda, or next of kin, would take
two-thirds of the inheritance; where he is the only son of any other
twice-born father, the Sapinda would take one-half. Possibly, the rule
of equal division among sons of equal caste did not at first apply to
Brahmans, who, as the eldest sons of God, would perhaps ob