He compares a wife to a vessel, which contains the curds or the sacrifice 86 and enjoin that she should be: protected from all impurity, for, as no sacrificial rite can be performed with curd produced from impure milk so no sacrificial rite can be performed with her or her children, if she becomes impure. 87 Apastamba adverts to monogamy kind gives a place to woman in sacrificial rites. The status of a married woman was considered to be equivalent to that of her husband. ‘Married women must be saluted according to the respective ages of their husbands’. 88

The sanctity of the marriage vow was not to be violated, and Apastamba ordains that, if the marriage vow is, transgressed, both husband and wife certainly go to hell; 89 and in the very next verse ho gives preference to facing the punishment or reward of the next, world rather Own obtaining a son through the custom of Niyoga. 90 These two verses though they are seen side by belong to different ages the later probably is a later interpolation.

He adopts a kind attitude towards women and exempts even an adulteress from severe punishment. "If adulteresses have performed the, prescribed penance, they are to be treated as before their fault. For the connection of husband and wife takes place through the law 91. But, like most of the other lawgivers, he prescribes hard rules for Sudras and ordains capital punishment if a Sudra dares to violate the modesty of women of the higher classes.