History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.7

v2.c26.7

The purpose of marriage, even according to the Ṛgveda, was to enable a man, by becoming a householder, to perform sacrifices to the gods and to procreate sons. The verse in Ṛg. X. 85. 36 shows that the husband took a woman as a wife for 'gārhapatya'. Ṛg. V. 3. 2., V. 28. 3 speak of the co-operation of husband and wife in the worship of gods. Ṛg. III. 53. 4 contains the emphatic assertion 'the wife herself is the home' (jāyed-astam). In later literature also the same statement occurs. A wife was called 'jāyā', because the husband was born in the wife as a son (Ait. Br. 33. 1). The Śat. Br. V. 2. 1. 10 says 'the wife¹⁰¹⁵ is indeed half of one's self; therefore as long as a man does not secure a wife so long he does not beget a son and so he is till then not complete (or whole); but when he secures a wife he gets progeny and then he becomes complete'. The Ait. Ār. (I. 2. 4) says 'therefore a man, after securing a wife, regards himself as more complete'. When Āp. Dh. S. II. 5. 11. 12 forbids taking a second wife if the first is endowed with progeny and the performance of religious rites, it indicates that the main purposes of marriage are two,¹⁰¹⁶ viz. the wife enables a man to perform religious rites and is the mother of a son or sons who were supposed to save a man from hell. Manu (IX. 28) states that on the wife depend the procreation of sons, the performance of religious rites, service, highest pleasure, heaven for oneself and for one's ancestors. So these three viz. *dharmasampatti*, *prajā* (and consequent freedom from falling into hell) and *rati* (sexual and other pleasures) are the principal purposes of marriage according to the smṛtis and nibandhas. Yāj. I. 78 is to the same effect. Jaimini (VI. 1. 17 ff) establishes that husband and wife have to perform sacrifices together and not separately and Āp. Dh. S.¹⁰¹⁷ II. 6. 13. 16-17 emphatically says that there can be no separation between husband and wife, for since marriage they have to perform religious acts jointly.