Incest, the practice of marrying one's sister was very much prevailed in ancient India.
Incest was common among several tribes of pre-Aryan India and is still found in various parts of the country. Thus, the marriage customs of the panchama baiga of central India permit the union of grandparents and grandchild, while the Ernadan male of Malabar takes his eldest daughter as his second wife.
The Hindu levirate system, known as Noyoga, was a sort of incest, practiced for the sake of raising offsprings, though it appears to have been extended beyond legitimate bounds. As examples of incestuous marriages in Hindu mythology may be cited the union of Yama and Yami; Manu son of Vivasvat and his sister Sraddha; Prajapati and his daughter Ushas; Pushan and his sister Surya; Sukra and his THREE sisters; Suka and Pivari; Satrajita and his TEN sisters; Nahusha and his sister Viraja. Purukutsa's queen Narmada after her husbands death, obtained a son through her own brother. Draupada may have married his own sister to obtain Dhrishtadymuna and Draupadi. Kaisalya wife of Dasaratha was probably also his sister; and more than one authority has suggested that Rama and Sita were actually brother and sister.
Dr Sarkar thinks that the Rig-Veda furnishes rishi sanction (method) for the incestuous ties between a man and his sister, or even mother. The vedic rite called GOSAVA involved union with ones own mother, sister or female relative through which one secured entry into heaven. The Jaiminiya Brahmana relates that king Janaka of Videha, when he understood its (i.e. rituals) nature, refused to undertake the rite, but a Sibi king did perform it, acting out all the requirements.
Certain episodes in the Epics point to an established dynastic custom among the Pandavas and Kauravas of sons succeeding to the seraglios of their father on his death, and it was apparently in keeping with ancient usage for princes to consort with all the father's wides except their own mothers. Upadhya after citing several instances of incestuous practices among the ancient Indian people justly concludes, `In face of these numerous data, it futile to hold that incest is un-Vedic'. Whatever reasons the early Aryans had for despising the natives, they could not despise them on the score of their incestuousness.
The promiscuity that permeated the later extremist Tantrik cults demanded incestuous relations with one's sister, daughter, and mother, in antinomian rites that were believed to be especially pleasing to the goddess.
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