The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s7.11

c7.s7.11

How far these rules of divorce were availed of, it is difficult to say. Recorded cases of divorce are not to be met with in Brahmanical tradition. In Buddhist literature, however, we meet with a few. Thus we are told that a woman named Kāṇā refused to return to her husband, when she learnt that he had contracted a second marriage during her absence. At the request of the Buddha, she was taken in adoption by a certain king, who married her to a nobleman (*Dhammapāda*, II, 82 and comm.). The nun Isidāsī had several divorces in her earlier life. She was first married to a merchant in Ayodhyā, who abandoned her within a month. Then her father married her to another person, who also disliked her and sent her back in an equally short time. She was then married to a third worthy, but this time the marriage did not last even for a fortnight (*Therīgāthā*, 72 and comm.). *Majhima Nikāya* refers to a family where the elders were anxious to divorce a discarded wife even against her wish and marry her to a new husband¹. It seems that parents in the lower sections of society were not accustomed to waste their time in inducing unwilling sons-in-law to accept unwanted wives; they would rather bring about a second marriage, though the woman concerned may not be enthusiastic about it.