| Women In The Sacred Laws |
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THE MANU-SAMHITA |
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In the same context, there is again ‘On failure of issue by her husband, a woman who has been authorized, may obtain, in the proper manner prescribed, the desired offspring by cohabitation with a brother-in-law or with some other Sapinda of the husband’. 63 The next few verses 64 describe the limitations attached to such sons: only one son could be got according to some, and two according to others. This injunction is followed by an account that contradicts the above statements. ‘By twice-born men a widow must not be appointed to cohabit with any other than her husband; for they who appoint her to another man will violate the eternal law’. 65. ‘In the sacred texts which refer to marriage the appointment of widows is nowhere mentioned, nor is the remarriage of widows prescribed in the rules concerning marriage’. 66 ‘This practice which is reprehended by the learned of the twice-born castes as fit for cattle is said to have occurred even among men, while Vena ruled. 67‘ That chief of royal sages, who formerly possessed the whole world, caused a confusion of the castes, his intellect being destroyed by Just. 68 'Since that time the virtuous censure that man who, in his folly, appoints a Woman whose husband died, to bear children to another man'. 69 |
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