India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s4.3

India as Known to Pāṇini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashṭādhyāyī c8.s4.3

Language: English

c8.s4.3

There were exceptional cases of unmarried girls becoming mothers whence their offspring was called *kānīna* (IV.1.116), 'issue of a *kanyā* not formally married.' Manu counts *kānīna* as one of the twelve kinds of sons (*Manu*, IX.172; cf. *Yāj.* II.129). Patañjali makes the objection that *kanyā*, a virgin, and *kānīna*, her son, cannot go together. He holds that the term *kanyā* continued to be applied to a girl before her *legal* marriage (*puṁs-ābhisambandha-pūrvaka saṁprayoga*, II. 257).

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Linked texts (3)

Aṣṭādhyāyī — Pāṇini, Sanskrit
Mānava Dharmaśāstra — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit
Yājñavalkyasmṛti — Yājñavalkya, Sanskrit