Women In The Sacred Laws
Major Sections

CONTEMPORARY EVIDENCE

Kautilya allows remarriage of women, under certain circumstances.

'Wives who belong to the Sudra, Vaisya, Kshatriya or Brahmana caste, and who have not given birth to children, should wait as long as a year, two, three, and four years respectively for their husbands who have gone abroad for a short time; then the 'jnatis or relatives should allow them to marry, after taking what had been presented to them on the occasion of their marriage.’

In cases where the husband is a Brahmana and has to be away from home for his studies, or where he is a servant of a king, and hence has to be absent from home, the wife has to wait for ten years in the former case and in the latter until his death. The extreme anxiety for begetting a son, is still to be found in Kautilya.

'…But even if she bears children to a sarvana husband a second husband belonging to the Gotra of the former husband with a view to avoid the extinction of her race, she shall not be liable to contempt there of.’

A young wife, 3 who is wedded according to the first four kinds of marriages, if she is abandoned by her husband, has to wait seven months before she can remarry. If the husband, on the other hand, announces his departure, then she has to wait a year for him. If the husband is not heard of, she has then to wait for five months only.

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About Contemporary Evidence
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