A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c6.144

c6.144

Neither does the fact that Pâṇḍu is lawfully married to two wives, harmonise with the Brahmanic law. That law does not prohibit polygamy, but it regards no second marriage as legal, and it reserves the privilege of being burnt together with the husband to the eldest and only lawful wife. Such passages in the ancient epics are of the greatest interest. We see in them the tradition of the people too far developed, to allow itself to be remodelled by Brahmanic Diaskeuastes. There can be little doubt that polygamy, as we find it among the early races in their transition from the pastoral to the agricultural life, was customary in India. We read in Herodotus (v. 5.), that amongst the Thracians it was usual, after the death of a man, to find out who had been the most beloved of his wives, and to sacrifice her upon his tomb. Mela (ii. 2.) gives the same as the general custom of the Getæ. Herodotus (iv. 71.) asserts a similar fact of the Scythians, and Pausanias (iv. 2.) of the Greeks, while our own Teutonic mythology is full of instances of the same feeling.¹ And thus the customs of these cognate nations explain what at first seemed to be anomalous in the epic tradition of the Mahâbhârata, that at the death of Pâṇḍu, it is Kuntî, his lawful wife, but Mâdrî, his most beloved wife, in whose arms the old king dies, and who successfully claims the privilege of being burnt with him, and following her husband to another life.²