The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.39

v1.c17.39

The relation of child and parent was clearly as a rule one of close affection; for a father is regarded as the type of all that is good and kind. There are traces, however, that parental rights were large and vague: if the chastisement of a gambler by his father may be deemed to be legitimate exercise of parental control, this cannot be said of the cruel act of his father in blinding Rjrāçva at which the Rigveda hints. The father probably controlled in some measure at least both son and daughter as regards marriage; and the right of the father to adopt is clearly recognised by the Rigveda, though a hymn ascribed to the family of Vasiṣṭha disapproves of the practice. The son after marriage must often have lived in the house and under the control of his father, of whom his wife was expected to stand in awe. But, on the other hand, as the father advanced in years it cannot have been possible for him to maintain a control which he was physically incapable of exercising; and so we find the bride enjoined to be mistress over her step-parents, doubtless in the case when her husband, grown to manhood, had taken over the management of the household from his father's failing hands.