History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.s2.59

v2.c28.s2.59

The following propositions can be deduced from the texts cited above. (1) There is no absolute right of abandonment of wife in the husband on the ground of adultery; (2) Adultery is ordinarily an upapātaka (a minor sin) and can be atoned for by appropriate penance undergone by the wife; (3) the wife who has committed adultery but has undergone penance is to be restored to all the ordinary rights of wives (*vide* Vas. XXI. 12, Yāj. I. 72, Mit. thereon and Aparārka p. 98); (4) as long as the adulteress has not undergone penance, she is to be given in the house itself starving maintenance and to be deprived of all her rights as wife (Yāj. I. 70, Śāntiparva 165. 63);