The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s7.13

c7.s7.13

The recorded cases of divorce, however, are few, and we have evidence in the Buddhist literature itself to show that divorce was rather unusual in cultured sections of society. Thus in the Kaṇhadipāyana Jātaka (No. 444), a woman points out to her husband that though she felt no love for him, she refrained from a new marriage because it was not the custom in that family for a wedded wife to take a new husband. It is therefore clear that women in higher classes of society were very unwilling to take advantage of the custom of divorce, prevailing among the lower classes.