History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.s2.16

v2.c28.s2.16

From very ancient times one of the articles of faith was that a man was born with debts, that he owed three debts to sages, gods and pitṛs and that by brahmacarya (student-hood), by performing yajñas and by procreating sons he freed himself from those three debts respectively. Vide¹³⁰² Tai. S. VI. 3. 10. 5, Śat. Br. I. 7.2.11, Ait. Br. 33.1. The last very succinctly states the purposes served by a son viz. payment of the debt to ancestors, the securing of immortality and heaven. Ṛg, V. 4. 10 (prajābhir-agne amṛtatvam-aśyām) prays 'may I obtain immortality through progeny.' Vas. Dh. S. 17. 1-4 quotes these passages of the Tai. S., Ait. Br. and Ṛg. The Ṛg. X. 85. 45 invokes the blessing of ten sons on the newly married bride and the Ṛg. is full of the yearning for a son at every step. Vide Ṛg. I. 91. 20, I. 92. 13, III. 1. 23 &c. Jaimini (VI. 2. 31)¹³⁰³ discusses the passage of the Tai S. and arrives at the conclusion that the duties laid down in it are obligatory and not left to choice and Śabara adds another explanation that these duties are obligatory on all dvijātis and the word 'brāhmaṇa' is used in the Tai. S. as illustrative only. Manu (VI. 35) enjoins upon a man that he should not think of *mokṣa* (release from saṁsāra) before he has paid off the three debts and (IX. 106) further says that by the very birth of the eldest son a man becomes free from the debt owed to ancestors. Manu (IX. 137), Vas. 17. 5, Viṣṇu Dh. S. 15. 46 contain the same verse proclaiming that a man attains all (heavenly) worlds by means of a son and Manu IX. 138, Ādi. 129. 14, Viṣṇu Dh. S. 15. 44 declare that a *putra* is so called because he saves his father from the hell called *put*. The Nirukta II. 11¹³⁰⁴ also derives the word *putra* similarly. Further the water and piṇḍas (balls of cooked rice) offered by the son to his father and other deceased ancestors were supposed to be of great efficacy for the peace of the souls of the departed. The Viṣṇu Dh. S. 85. 70,¹³⁰⁵ Vanaparva 84. 97, Matsyapurāṇa 207. 39 contain a verse 'one should desire to have many sons in the hope that one of them may repair to Gayā.' On account of these several benefits conferred by a son, the highest importance was attached to the birth of a son. The wife helped a man to discharge two of his debts, to the gods by associating with him in sacrifices and to the pitṛs by procreating a son or sons. Therefore the goal of the life of women was declared to be to get married and procreate sons. This was so much the case from very ancient times that even the Śat. Br. (V. 3. 2. 2, S. B. E. vol. 41, p. 65) says that the sonless wife is possessed with *Nir-ṛti* (ill luck or Destruction). Manu (IX. 96) says 'women are created for procreation and men have to propagate (the race): therefore in the Veda it is declared that the wife shares in common (with the husband) the performance of religious duties'. Nārada (strīpuṁsa v. 19) also declares that women are created for (procreating) children. It was on account of these ideas about the goal of woman's life and the supreme importance of a son that the smṛtis and dharma-sūtra works recommended or allowed the husband to marry a second time even when the first wife was living.