Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.707

c7.707

Niyoga is also reckoned among the usages prohibited in the Kali age and therefore in the Smṛtis it appears to be a custom already falling into disuetude which however was handed down from the Vedic age and therefore had at least to be mentioned. Bṛh. 2, 31 remarks that the Khaśas form matrimonial alliances with the widows of deceased brothers. A kind of Niyoga is mentioned already in the RV 10, 40. 2 and this passage was well-known to the commentators.¹ The epic tradition too knows of Niyoga and in the Mah. it is as well theoretically prescribed as it is practically exemplified by the heroes of the poem; yet however in the Niyogas of the epic—