Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.720

c7.720

About the different varieties of the "son of the remarried widow": (paunarbhava) see § 15. Out of the criminal intercourse of the woman before and after her marriage are born the "son of the virgin" (kānīna) corresponding to the Vedic Kumāriputra belonging partly to the maternal grandfather and partly to the later husband of his mother, the Sahoḍha i. e. a son with whom the mother was pregnant even at the time of her marriage, be her pregnancy known or not, and the "secret born son" (gūḍhaja, gūḍhotpanna), i.e. the son born of wife's adulterous intercourse, but who has seen the light in the house of her husband. The Sahoḍha and the Gūḍhaja are regarded as sons of the husband according to the principle pater est quem nuptial demonstrant (he is the father whom the marriage proves to be so). The Sahodha is the lowest of these three sons and is usually given the eighth or a still lower place, probably because marriage with a pregnant woman was considered shameful. The Kānīna often occupies the fourth place and is mostly given preference to the Gūḍhaja who is disgraced with the stain of adultery.