The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c10.s2.22

c10.s2.22

From about 600 A. D. the prejudice against the widow remarriage began to become deeper and deeper. Smṛiti writers from this period onwards begin to condemn them vehemently. Passages in earlier works clearly permitting them began to be explained away as referring to a bygone age. The *Ādityapurāṇa* declares that widow remarriage is not to be performed in the Kali age¹. A widow’s son could not be invited for a Śrāddha. Referring to the permission for his sacred initiation given by earlier texts, Laghu-Aśvalāyana states frankly that it may have been a good and valid custom in a former age, but it can no longer be followed in the present times². Mādhava, while commenting upon the famous text in Parāśara permitting remarriage, observes that it is no longer valid in the Kali age.