History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.11.2

v2.c28.11.2

80 both say that a husband may supersede a wife (and marry another) if she drinks wine, suffers from a disease (of long standing), is deceitful, is extravagant in expenditure, speaks harsh words, and gives birth to female children only. Manu V. 81 and Baud. Dh. S. II. 2. 65 allow a husband to marry another woman at once if the first is harsh of tongue. Devala ¹²⁷⁹ quoted in the Gṛ. R. says that the śūdra may have only one wife, a vaiśya two, a kṣatriya three and a brāhmaṇa four, but a king may have as many as he desires. This only reflected the prevailing practice of kings. The Ādiparva ¹²⁸⁰ gravely remarks 'to have many wives is no *adharma* on the part of men, but to violate the duty owed to the first husband would be a great *adharma* in the case of women.' The Mahābhārata (Mausala-parva V. 6) tells us that Vāsudeva¹²⁸¹ (Kṛṣṇa) had sixteen thousand wives. Several kings had in historic times as many as a hundred wives. For example, the Cedi king Gāṅgeyadeva alias Vikramāditya is said to have obtained *mukti* (salvation) at Prayāga with his hundred wives¹²⁸² (vide Jabalpur plate of Yaśaḥkarṇadeva dated 1122 A. D. in E. I. vol. II. p. 4 and the Khaira plates of the same king in E. I. vol. XII. p. 205). In Bengal the evils of Kulinism are well known.