These days Hindus frequently come in contact with Westerners (Mlechhas or outcastes) and they marry Western women (I mean Christian women). I suppose Westerners should be considered as Mlechhas.
Is it permissible to marry a mleccha (Westerner)? Does our Dharmasastra say anything about this issue? I guess, back then it was not so common in society. But these days, it is quite common because Indians go abroad a lot and fall in love with Western women.
Mleccha does not mean foreigner it has 3 meanings which are someone who is Nastik (doesn’t believe in the Vedas), someone who can’t pronounce Sanskrit or languages based off of Sanskrit, and someone who eats beef and does not follow Hindu Rules correctly
Mleccha is not about race or Culture it’s more about Religion and what they do and Believe in
That’s why there was Hindus in South East Asia
So a western/foreign person is not instantly a Mleccha but a lot of people are
But about a Hindu marrying a Mleccha this is from the Atri Smriti:
- The purification for knowing a Mleccha woman consists in a Santapanam penance, or it is said, one may attain to purification by performing a Taptakrcchra penance.
- If a person lives with a wife known by a Mleccha man, he becomes purified by bathing with the cloth on and drinking clarified butter.
- By cohabiting [living with and having sex with], unknowingly, with the women of the Chandalas, Mlecchas ... one is purified by a Paraka.
185. 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.
हर हर महादेव जय जय श्री राम
As per manusmṛti book X, such a marriage will affect fitness for the sacraments :
anāryāyāṃ samutpanno brāhmaṇāt tu yadṛcchayā | brāhmaṇyāmapyanāryāt tu śreyastvaṃ kveti ced bhavet || 66 ||
If a child is somehow born to a brāhmaṇā from a non-ārya woman, and another is born to a non-ārya from a brāhmaṇā woman, with which of these would the ‘superiority’ lie?—(66)
jāto nāryāmanāryāyāmāryādāryo bhaved guṇaiḥ | jāto'pyanāryādāryāyāmanārya iti niścayaḥ || 67 ||
The decision is that—‘one born to an ārya from a non-ārya woman may be an ārya in quality; but one born to a non-ārya even from an ārya woman is always non-ārya’—(67)
tāvubhāvapyasaṃskāryāviti dharmo vyavasthitaḥ | vaiguṇyāj janmanaḥ pūrva uttaraḥ pratilomataḥ || 68 ||
The settled law is that both these are unfit for the sacraments:—the former on account of the defect in his birth and the latter by reason of his being horn ‘in the inverse order.’—(68)
subījaṃ caiva sukṣetre jātaṃ sampadyate yathā | tathā'ryāj jāta āryāyāṃ sarvaṃ saṃskāramarhati || 69 ||
Just as good seed grown in a good soil turns out well, so is the child born to an ārya from an ārya woman worthy of all sacraments.—(69)
bījameke praśaṃsanti kṣetramanye manīṣiṇaḥ | bījakṣetre tathaivānye tatraiyaṃ tu vyavasthitiḥ || 70 ||
Some wise men extol the seed, while others the soil; while yet others extol both the seed and the soil. The decision on this point is as follows.—(70)
akṣetre bījamutsṛṣṭamantaraiva vinaśyati | abījakamapi kṣetraṃ kevalaṃ sthaṇḍilaṃ bhavet || 71 ||
The seed sown on barren soil perishes prematurely; and soil without the seed would be a mere barren plot.—(71)
yasmād bījaprabhāveṇa tiryagjā ṛṣayo'bhavan | pūjitāśca praśastāśca tasmād bījaṃ praśasyate || 72 ||
Because through the power of the seed, those born of animals became sages, honoured and extolled, therefore it is the seed that is more important.—(72)
anāryamāryakarmāṇamāryaṃ cānāryakarmiṇam | sampradhāryābravīd dhātā na samau nāsamāviti || 73 ||
Having examined the non-ārya behaving like an ārya and the ārya behaving like the non-ārya, the creator declared ‘that these are neither equal nor unequal.’—(73)
For the first part "ārya in quality..." of X.67, IX.23 & IX.24 could be the example cases :
akṣamālā vasiṣṭhena saṃyuktā'dhamayonijā | śāraṅgī mandapālena jagāmābhyarhaṇīyatām || 23 ||
The low-born akṣamālā united with vasiṣṭha, and the śāraṅgī united with mandapāla, became worthy of worship.—(23)
etāścānyāśca loke'sminnapakṛṣṭaprasūtayaḥ | utkarṣaṃ yoṣitaḥ prāptāḥ svaiḥ svairbhartṛguṇaiḥ śubhaiḥ || 24 ||
These as well as other women, of low birth, have attained eminence in the world, through the good qualities of their respective husbands.—(24).
