History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c9.9

v1.c9.9

The next observation to make with regards to marriage is that women once married could not be remarried, at least, in the three higher castes as now. But the tonsure of widows is apparently a custom later than the times of Bāṇa, for in one place, Bāṇa speaks of the peculiar Veṇi. i. e. braid of hair of widows, see बधातु वैधव्यवेणीं वरमनुष्यता. H. C. p. 236. What this particular mode of Veṇi or braid of hair of widows was, there is no indication. In the Rāmāyaṇa we have the expression एकवेणीधरा applied to Sītā when she was in Rāvaṇa's house separated from her husband and this kind of Veṇi is also frequently mentioned by poets in connection with women whose husbands are away. Happier women put on the three braided Veṇi but what difference was made between the Ekaveṇi of wives with husbands living but away and the Veṇi of widows we cannot discover. Widows had also, as already stated, a distinctive colour of their clothes, namely, the white, other women wearing coloured clothes and clothes with borders probably.