Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.653

c7.653

§ 19. Polygamy, concubinage and divorce. Although a second husband for the wife "is nowhere prescribed," not even after the death of the first, the husband is to marry anew after the death of his wife without delay (M. 5, 162, 168; Y. 1, 89).² But even in the life-time of his wife it is not forbidden for him to get beside her any number of married wives or concubines that he may wish for. Polygamy is in evidence already in the Vedas³; thus e.g. in MS 1, 5, 8 the ten wives (jāyā) of Manu are mentioned. Yet in such passages of the Vedas and the Śrautasūtras chiefly the princely or noble families alone seem to be referred to, and the dual dampatī samanasa "a harmonious couple" and the presence of the one wife (patnī) at the sacrifice prove that monogamy was regarded as the usual and natural state of things. The heroes of the Mah.⁴ have usually many wives, but there is also a real or chief wife, the Mahiṣī, mentioned even in the Vedas, and in the inscriptions too frequently one single wife is ascribed to the princes Even in the case of the Brahmans of the Mah., although they have several wives, the Brāhmaṇī appears to be the proper and the legitimate wife, the Dharmapatnī.