Every tribal community has its own customs about who may marry whom. In many communities, people marry within the tribe but outside their own clan — the clan may be called gotra, kur, killi, paris or by another name. Some communities also look at the clan group (such as the Gond saga or the Koya gotram), the mother’s clan, or the village. In matrilineal communities such as the Khasi and Garo, the clan comes from the mother.
Vivaham turns these customs into filters that your family controls.
Filters set to your community’s usual practice
When you create a profile, two filters are switched on for everyone:
- Same tribe only — you see people from your own tribe.
- Exclude same clan — you don’t see people from your own clan (for matrilineal communities, the mother’s clan).
Your tribe may have other customs too — for example about the clan group, the mother’s clan, or the same village. These appear as extra filters for your tribe. A filter is switched on by default only once members of your community have confirmed the rule. Until then it is off and marked “being confirmed for your community”.
Your family can change them
Customs differ between regions and between families, so you can switch any community filter on or off. When you change one, Vivaham shows a short note about your community’s usual practice — for example, “Most families in your community don’t marry within the same saga” — but it does not stop you.
- Filter changes are visible to everyone on your family account, with the name of the person who made the change, and the bride or groom is told about them.
- Your family can save different sets of filters and switch between them.
Some things can never be switched off: the legal age rule, the rule that Vivaham is only for tribal communities, consent, safety checks and blocked users.
Filters work both ways
You see a profile only if it passes your filters and the other family’s filters. If one family keeps “exclude same clan” switched on, neither family will see the other — even if the other family switched it off. This way, no family is shown matches that go against their own customs.
If you wonder why you don’t see someone, Vivaham can tell you which filter — yours or theirs — is the reason, without showing the other family’s private settings.
Every community is respected equally
- Vivaham never ranks tribes, clans or communities, and never treats one as better than another. The “verified” badge shows only which checks a member has completed — it says nothing about the person or their community.
- Where a community has ranked divisions within it, Vivaham uses them only if the community needs them for matching, and never shows them to anyone or offers them as a filter.
- You describe your tribe, clan and village in your own community’s words. Tribes can be found by any of their local names.
Getting the rules right, together
Our first list of tribes, clans and customs comes from published research. We know it will not always be right for every region. Every rule records where it came from and whether community members have confirmed it, and we will keep checking with communities over time.
If something is wrong or missing for your community, please write to us. Our team can add tribes, clans and customs at any time.