Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.504

c7.504

An ancient Gāthā quoted in Āp. 2, 13, 7 and Baudh. 2, 3, 34, contains a veiled allusion to a period when little value was placed on the conjugal faith of a woman. The tradition about an age of unrestraint and debauchery contained in the Mah., which was put a stop to by Śvetaketu¹, may perhaps be compared with it.² Most of the Smṛtis mention the "secretly born" (gūḍhaja, gūḍhotpanna) as one of the subsidiary sons, who can inherit the property of the husband of his mother, although he is his illegitimate son by another man. A. Mayr³ sees in it "a recognition of the right of the other members of the clan upon the married woman" and "one of the most potent proofs of the sometime community of women among the Indian Aryans." According to Bṛh. 2, 30 the women of the east were unchaste (vyabhicāratāḥ.)