'She who has not this Sapinda relation of two kinds described above is an Asapinda, and such a one should be married. If this is son, marriage can take place no where, for in all cases it will be possible to bring in Sapinda relationship somehow, as it is impossible to avoid continuous connection with the Creator's, body, for the Sruti says: 'May I be many.' But this is no defect of the Sapinda relationship which however has been generally restricted to five and seven generations on mother's and father's sides respectively and ceases to exist afterwards '. 10

The extent of Sapinda relationship being thus determined, the next problem that engaged the attention of the lawgivers was to limit the scope of marriage. The Vishnu-Purana has the following remark on it: 'a householder should wed a maiden not belonging to a family within seven generations on his father's side and five on his mother's side'. 11Among the ancient lawgivers, Gautama had declared that 'the relation of Pinda ceases with the seventh and fifth generations'. 12

This, too, does not clearly mention whether the seventh and fifth generations are included in the list. Neither Vishnu-Purana nor the laws of Manu and Yajnavalkya supply us with definite information. It seems as though the question remained undetermined. This state of things did not last long, and we find Paithinasi declaring emphatically: 'Fifth from the mother, and seventh from the father has to be abandoned '. 13

It has been argued from the above that, if marriage takes place in the fifth generation on the mother's side and the seventh on the father's side, the married couple should be out casted and counted as Sudra. So the question became determined by the time of Paithinasi. Paithinasi, however, is more favorable to inter-caste marriages, and he declares: 'Third from the mother and fifth from the father' should be abandoned. 14