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Do scriptures allow Hindus to marry foreigners, or non-Hindus of other races?

Inter-caste marriage has its restrictions, but what about interracial marriages?

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No, the Dharma Shastras explicitly forbid Hindus from marrying foreigners, otherwise known as Mlecchas.

Here are some verses from the Atri Smriti that prohibit interracial marriages:

  1. The purification for knowing [having sex with] a Mleccha woman consists in a Santapanam penance, or it is said, one may attain to purification by performing a Taptakrcchra penance.

  2. If a person lives with a wife known [who has had sex with] by a Mleccha man, he becomes purified by bathing with the cloth on and drinking clarified butter.

  3. By cohabiting [living with and having sex with], unknowingly, with the women of the Chandalas, Mlecchas ... one is purified by a Paraka.

  4. But if one knows them willingly, and procreates children with them, then he is degraded to the same caste as them; there is no doubt about it, for that man is born as her son.

So it is actually a huge sin to marry foreigners, since one becomes degraded to the caste of Mleccha.

This answer explains some of the different types of penances for sins.

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  • Its written that they will be degraded as there caste doesn't mean it's sin
    – Goi Garg
    Oct 20, 2020 at 3:42

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