The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c10.s2.7

c10.s2.7

Though actual instances of widow remarriages, that can be clearly distinguished from Niyoga are few, they must not have been infrequent in society. For the Dharmasūtras (*c.* 400 B.C. to *c.* 100 A.D.) allow remarriage even when the death of the husband was only presumed and not proved. Thus Vasishṭha says that even a Brahmana lady with living children need wait only for five years, if her husband, gone out on a journey, does not return. *If she is unwilling to go to him,* she should marry a near relative; only she should not wed outside the family, if there is an eligible person within it¹. Vasiṣṭha is not here referring to Niyoga, for he extends this permission even to women having living children. Kauṭilya (III, 4) and Nārada (XII, 88 ff.) have laid down similar rules. The former reduces the period of waiting to a few months only, and allows even women married by regular religious rites to enter into a fresh wedlock². This permission was availed of even in high class families. Uḍupī was a widow, and she practically compelled Arjuna to marry her. In Uchchaṅga Jātaka, a lady when given an option of choice between a husband, a son and a brother, choses the last mentioned one, observing that she can easily get another husband or son, but not another brother³. In Nanda Jātaka (No. 39) we come across a husband shuddering at the prospect of his youthful wife marrying again after his death, and not giving any share of his property to his son.