History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.s2.37

v2.c28.s2.37

The rewards of the wife's single-minded devotion to her husband and her rigid observance of the rules of conduct prescribed for her are stated at great length in smṛti works. Manu (IX. 29-30 = Manu V. 165 and 164) says 'that woman who does not prove faithless to her husband in thought, word and deed (lit. body) secures the (heavenly) worlds together with her husband and is spoken of as a *sādhvī*' (a virtuous woman, a *pativratā*); but by proving faithless to her husband a woman incurs censure in this world, is born as a female jackal (in the next life) and is afflicted with very bad diseases.' Yāj. (I. 75 and 87) declares that the woman, who does not approach another while the husband is living or after his death and who is intent on doing what is agreeable and beneficial to her husband, who is of good conduct and has restrained her senses, attains glory in this world and plays with Umā (the wife of Śiva) in heaven. Bṛhaspati¹³¹⁸ defines a *pativratā* as one who is distressed when her husband is distressed, who is delighted when her husband is in delight, who is emaciated and wears dirty clothes when her husband has gone on a journey and who dies on the death of her husband.