of the bride and groom before approving the marriage. People within the gotra are regarded as siblings and marrying such a person can lead to higher chances for the child to get genetically transferred diseases. In almost all Hindu families, marriage within the same gotra is not practiced (since they are believed to be descended from the same family). Marriages between different gotras are encouraged; marriage within the same jati started to happen later. For example, Gurjars, Jats and Rajputs have 3000 Gotras and Mudirajas of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have 2600 Gotras. Gotra is always passed on from father to children among most Hindus. However, among the Tulu people it is passed on from mother to child. The tatsama words 'sahara' and 'sahodari' (sister) derive their roots from the Sanskrit word 'sahodara' (सहोदर) meaning co-uterine or born of the same womb. In communities where gotra membership passed from father to children, marriages were allowed between a woman and her maternal uncle, while such marriages were forbidden in matrilineal communities, like Tuluvas, where gotra membership was passed down from the mother. A much more common characteristic of South Indian Hindu society is permission for marriage between cross-cousins (children of brother and sister) as they are of different gotras. Thus, a man is allowed to marry his maternal uncle's daughter or his paternal aunt's daughter but is not allowed to marry his paternal uncle's daughter. She would be considered a parallel cousin, of the same gotra, and therefore to be treated as a sister. North Indian Hindu society not only follows the rules of gotra for marriages but also has many regulations which go beyond the basic definition of gotra and have a broader definition of incest. Some communities in North India do not allow marriage with certain other clans, based on the belief that both clans are of the same patrilineal descent. In other communities, marriage within the gotra of the mother's father, and possibly some others, is prohibited. A possible workaround for Sagotra marriages is to perform a 'Data' (adoption) of the bride to a family of different gotra (usually data is given to the bride's maternal uncle who belongs to different gotra by the same rule) and let them perform the 'Kanyadanam' ('kanya' (girl) + 'danam' (to give)). Such workarounds are used in rare cases, and the acceptability is questionable. Vedic Hinduism recognizes eight types of marriages,