History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c9.10

v1.c9.10

The custom of enforced widowhood, not accompanied by that of child marriage must not then have been felt a grievance though pitiable instances of women widowed in early age like Rājyaśrī must have occurred now and then. To these women Buddhism offered an asylum and the order of Buddhist nuns must have been principally composed of such women. Though thus enforced widowhood did not then exist in its cruellest form, we have to notice another inhuman custom which appears to have then obtained from the writings of poets and even the descriptions of Bāṇa in the Harsha Charita. Widows of kings conquered and slain in battle appear to have been reduced to the condition of servitude in the family of the conqueror. It is no wonder, therefore, such women often preferred death to servitude. It is strange that the woes of the widows of conquered kings are a favourite topic for the poet's art to exhibit itself. Widow marriage not being allowed, such women in the family of the conqueror might have also often been reduced to the condition of concubines. The harems of kings, it must also be noticed, consisted of a number of wives and a still larger number of concubines or courtezans. The latter, of course, easily exchanged their position with one king for that with another and greater king.* But that the widowed queens of conquered kings should usually have been reduced to the status of servants and sometimes of concubines seems rather strange and cruel compared with the otherwise well ordered and moral condition of the Hindu society and we would not have believed in it, but for such passages as the following one from Bāṇa, आपीतौ युष्मद्विधैः पुत्रैर्मित्रकलत्रबन्दिवृन्द-विधूयमान-चामर-मरुच्चल-चीनांशुकधरौ पयोधरौ H. C. P. 231.