Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.677

c7.677

Even at the present day polygamy is as common as it is permissible, and separation proper, at least among the higher castes, is rare. The number of castes in Bombay, among which, according to the trustworthy data in BG "polygamy is permitted and practised" is very large and includes many Brahmanical and aristocratic communities. There are similar data about other provinces too. Nevertheless the percentage of people actually practising polygamy is nowhere very high. Thus in Madras where polygamy is most popular, only 4 per cent of the men have two wives¹ and in the Punjab the number of men wedded to more than one wife does not even amount to than 1 per cent². Sterility of the first wife is usually said to be the cause of polygamy and it is fully in conformity with the principles of the Smṛtis. As it is said in the census report for Madras, separation is allowed even by the modern Brahmanical law of marriage only on account of the adultery of the wife. In the Punjab all the Hindu sects answered in the negative when the question was put before them whether divorce is customary among them; yet sometimes the tyāg (=tyāga of the Smṛtis) takes place among them, i. e. the husband turns out the wife on account of adultery; but on the contrary a marriage once consummated is never dissolved even on account of impotence or any other physical defect ¹. Separation is very common among all the Dravidian tribes as the Census Report for Madras shows. In Bombay too among the lower castes separation from the wife frequently takes place, not only because of adultery—in which case she is treated as a slave though she still remains in the house of her husband as laid down in some Smṛtis referred to above—but also on account of impotence, twelve years' absence, disappearance or excommunication of the husband ; in these cases the wife may also marry afresh ². Probably even in ancient times there were many tribes who cherished such principles, whence the corresponding rules of the several Smṛtis may be explained.