History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s14.29.2

v1.c6.s14.29.2

Manu prohibits the remarriage of widows (V. 161-165), while Kauṭilya allows not only widows to remarry, but also wives whose husbands have not been heard of for a year or more according to circumstances (III. 4). Kauṭilya allows a wife to desert her husband, if the latter is of a bad character, has become a traitor to the king, endangers her life or has become an outcaste or impotent¹⁷³ (last verse of III. 2). Kauṭilya further seems to have allowed divorce which is unknown to any other known lawgiver, but he bases it only on the ground of mutual hatred and says that a marriage in the approved forms cannot be dissolved¹⁷⁴ (III. 3). Manu is very harsh upon gamblers and asks the king to supress gambling and banish gamblers (9. 221-224), while Kauṭilya only brings gambling under the control of the king for the purpose of detecting thieves &c. (III. 20). Manu first allows a Brāhmaṇa to marry even a Sūdra woman and then condemns such a thing (III. 13-19), while Kauṭilya does not condemn such unions. These divergences and others lead us to conclude that the Kauṭilīya is much older than the extant Manusmṛti, which is in many matters carried away by puritanic zeal, while its older portion is more in harmony with the spirit of the Kauṭilīya. Therefore the Kauṭilīya is long anterior to the time when the extant Manusmṛti took its present form. The Kauṭilīya refers to the opinion of the Mānavas in five places.