[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930) › v2.c28.s2.2 # History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.s2.2 History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.s2.2 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c28.s2.2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c28.s2.2.1) The first duty of the husband and the privilege of the wife was to require and to give respectively her co-operation in all religious acts. This has been so from the most ancient times. In Ṛg. I. 72. 5 it is said¹²⁹¹ that 'they, accompanied by their wives, worshipped the fire who is worthy of worship'. In another place it is said 'when you make the husband and wife of one mind, they anoint thee with ghee like a well-placed friend'. In the Tai. Br. III. 7. 5 occurs a passage 'may the wife unite with her husband by means of the good deeds (done by both ), they two became yoked like oxen to the sacrifice; may the two be of one mind and destroy their foes; may they attain non-aging light in heaven'. The same verse with slight variations occurs in the Kāṭhaka Saṁ. V. 4 and is relied upon by Śabara on Jaimini VI. 1. 21. This indicates that they were supposed to enjoy the fruits of their actions together. We saw above (p. 551) how in the Aśvamedha the wife anoints the horse, how in marriage the bride offers handfuls of fried grain into fire. It has already been seen (note 1208) that the Āp. Dh. S. (II. 6. 13. 17-19) requires that from the time of marriage the husband and wife work together in religious acts, that they share the reward of such acts together and that they both have dominion over the wealth of the family and that the wife can make gifts in the absence of the husband if occasion necessitates. The Āśv. gṛ. (I. 8. ### [v2.c28.s2.2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c28.s2.2.2) 5) prescribes¹²⁹² that the fire kindled at marriage is carried by the married pair to their home (in a vessel) and that (I. 9. 1-8) since the day of marriage, the husband should worship the domestic fire himself or his wife or his son or his daughter or pupil (may offer worship in his absence), that if fire goes out, some teachers say that the wife should observe a fast, the domestic fire should be worshipped in the evening with an \*āhuti\* and the formula 'agnaye svāhā' and in the morning with an \*āhuti\* and the formula 'sūryāya svāhā' and there is to be a second oblation each time silently (to Prajāpati). According to the commentator some said that the wife and daughter could not perform the homa as they had no privilege to learn mantras, that they could only kindle the fire, while others said they could do so. In the gṛhya fire kindled at marriage one was to offer the daily mahāyajñas (Gaut. 5. 6-8) and as regards baliharaṇa, Gobhila gṛ. (I. 4. 16-19) says that both husband and wife should offer \*balis\*, or a brāhmaṇa may offer for them, or the wife may offer in the evening and the husband in the morning¹²⁹³. Manu (III. 121) says that from food cooked in the evening the wife should offer balis, but without mantras. This shows that though gradually women began to lose the right to repeat Vedic mantras (as shown by Manu), still she had a hand in the religious rites. She had to perform many acts in sacrifices, such as unhusking grain in sthālīpāka (\*vide\* Hir. gṛ. I. 23. ### [v2.c28.s2.2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c28.s2.2.3) 3), washing the slaughtered animal (\*compare\* Śat. Br. III. 8. 2 and Gobhila gṛ III. 10. 29), looking at the \*ājya\* in śrauta sacrifices. The Pūrvamīmāṁsā¹²⁹⁴ (VI. 1. 17–21) establishes that both husband and wife own property and should join together in performing sacrifices, but that the male sacrificer alone is ordinarily to do every act in all religious ceremonies except such matters as are expressly declared to be performed by the wife also or alone (as e. g. observing celibacy, uttering benediction &c.). It is on account of the necessity of associating the wife in all religious acts that the hero Rāma was compelled to celebrate sacrifices with a golden image of Sītā by his side.¹²⁹⁵ Pāṇini (IV. 1. 33) derives the word \*patnī\* and says that it can be only applied to a wife who shares in the sacrifice (and its reward). It follows that wives who are not or cannot join with their husbands in yajñas are only \*jāyās\* or \*bhāryās\* (but not \*patnīs\*). The Mahābhāṣya says¹²⁹⁶ that the wife of a śūdra is called \*patnī\* only by analogy (as a śūdra himself has no adhikāra for yajña, his wife can much less have it). It is on account of this close association of the wife in all sacrifices (either śrauta or smārta) that the wife if she dies before her husband is burnt with the sacred fire or fires and with the sacrificial vessels and implements (Manu V. 167–168, Yāj. I. 89). The Tai. Br. III. 7. ### [v2.c28.s2.2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c28.s2.2.4) 1 says ‘half of the sacrifice is destroyed in the case of that sacrificer whose wife is (in her monthly course and therefore) unavailable on the sacrificial day.’¹²⁹⁷ --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c28.s2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c28.s2.2) · Pramāṇa