Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.657

c7.657

Generally a man should at first marry a woman of his own caste and only afterwards proceed to take wives from the lower classes in the order of the Varṇas, so that only the Śūdra is restricted to a single wife of his own caste. Yet the Mah. too sometimes endorses the more austere view that the Śūdra woman can never be taken to wife by the higher classes. The analogous teachings of the Smṛtis on this point have already been discussed in §18. Thus four three and two wives are allowed to Brahmans, Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas respectively, but excluding the Śūdra we have only three wives for Brahmans, two for Kṣatriyas, etc. Of these only the wife of one's own caste is the Dharmapatnī and the others are regarded as wives of lower grade or concubines and for this reason their children too are at a disadvantage in the law of inheritance.