History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.s2.26.1

v2.c28.s2.26.1

According to Manu V. 150 'a wife should always present a smiling face, should be alert and clever in her domestic duties, should keep domestic vessels well burnished and clean and should not be extravagant in spending.' Manu IX. 11 asks the husband to set to his wife the task of conserving the wealth acquired and looking to its expenditure, of keeping things clean, of the performance of religious acts, of cooking food and of taking care of household paraphernalia. Manu (IX. 13) adds that drinking wine, company of bad people, staying away from the husband, wandering about (to *tīrthas* or elsewhere), sleep (by day), staying in the house of strangers—these six spoil married women. Ādiparva 74. 12 gives¹³¹⁰ expression to the popular notion that people do not like married women staying with their paternal relatives for a long time away from their husbands, since such a stay leads to loss of good name and character. The same sentiment is echoed by Kālidāsa in the Śākuntala (V. 17). The Mārkaṇḍeya purāṇa 77. 19 is to the same effect. Yāj. (I. 83 and 87) requires the wife to keep household utensils and furniture in their proper places, to be clever, to have a smiling face, to be unextravagant, to be devoted to doing what is agreeable and beneficial to the husband, to show respect to her father-in-law and mother-in-law by clasping their feet;