The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s6.40

c2.s6.40

How closely the legal part of the Epic hangs together in all formal statement of the rules of propriety we may see by comparing with the above the regulations of the dharmasūtras, not to speak of the çāstra of Manu, with which the later Epic stands on an equal footing in many points. Thus, the dharmasūtras are precise in ordering that no breach of chastity shall be risked by contact with, or looking upon a woman.§ The especial sanctity of the teacher’s wife is evinced by the rule that the student shall not mention her name, and shall serve her as well as the teacher (G. ii. 18, 31; Āp. i. 2. 7. 30). Special rules for greeting women are given, and some give even a rule here for colloquial intercourse between husband and wife (G. vi. 6 ff.) The supposed immaculate character of woman is not maintained, but some curious regulations are to be found. Thus, it is said by Vasishtha that only three acts make women impure: becoming an outcast, murdering her husband, and slaying her unborn child;‖ but according to Gautama, abortion and connection with a low-caste make a woman an outcast (Vās. xxviii. 7; G. xxi. 9). Notwithstanding that it is said by Vasishtha that a woman is pure in all her limbs, and is not defiled by her lover (Vās. xxviii. 9, 1–6.), we read in the same work that to make herself pure the woman has to sip water (Vās. iii. 31–34; B. i. 5. 8. 22). Woman was, therefore, in general less exposed than man to accidental theoretical impurities, but crimes of the gravest nature made her impure; and, though not impure for herself from natural causes, she might render the man who associated with her impure. The giving of right of way to a woman seems also to rest on this footing in the law-treatises; for, though given in the form common to the Epic and to Manu in three of the *dharmasūtras*, that of Baudhāyana restricts the gallantry to the case of a pregnant woman.* As to killing a woman, we find in all the law-books that the punishment is in proportion not only to the caste, but to the condition of the woman at the time of her murder.† For an ordinary woman—that is, for women in general—a modified penance is ordained by law, while for the accidental slaughter of an unchaste woman or harlot there is no penance at all, or at the most ‘a bag.’‡