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Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s10.t14: The Custom of Niyoga

Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s10.t14

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The Custom of Niyoga

c12.s10.t14.1

Reference may be made here to the custom of *niyoga* which prevailed in ancient India. The practice prescribed for a childless widow to have intercourse with the brother or any near kinsman of her deceased husband to beget a male child.⁷⁰ In the *Āvaśyaka cūrṇi* reference is made to this custom, although it does not come exactly under the category of niyoga. It is said that once Kayapunna, a merchant of Rāyagiha, was sleeping in a temple, whence he was taken away by a merchant woman to her house This woman had lost her son in a shipwreck, and since there was no heir to his property, she feared that the heirless property might go to the king. The merchant woman told her four daughters-in-law that Kayapunna was their brother-in-law (devara) who was found after a very long time Kayapunna remained there for twelve years and in the course of time begot four children by each one of them⁷¹

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⁷⁰ According to *Manu* (IX 59f) the person who was appointed under *niyoga* to beget a son for the widow was to approach her anointed with clarified butter, silently to give her one son only, and by no means a second, and after the purpose of *niyoga* is served the man and the woman had to behave towards each other like a father and a daughter-in-law, also *Gautama* XVIII 4ff, Also see Altekar, *op. cit.*, pp 168-76.

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⁷¹ pp 466-9.

Cites (2)