History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c29.38

v2.c29.38

The foregoing discussion leads to the following conclusions. There is no express Vedic authority for the tonsure of widows. The gṛhya or dharma sūtras do not refer to it; nor do important smṛtis like those of Manu and Yāj. If one or two smṛti verses of doubtful import seem to refer to it, other smṛtis like Vṛddha-Hārīta are to an opposite effect. Some of the smṛti texts only refer, if at all, to one shaving on the husband's death, but there is no smṛti passage prescribing continual shaving for widows. There is only the Skandapurāṇa passage expressly requiring tonsure of widows. The Mit. and Aparārka are silent about it. It appears that the practice was gradually evolved after the 10th or 11th century. As widows were equated with *yati*s for several injunctions (vide note 1367 above) and as the latter shaved themselves, widows were gradually required to do so. By rendering them ugly it might have been intended to keep them chaste. Probably the example of Buddhist and Jaina nuns may have also suggested the cruel practice. We find from the Cullavagga ¹³⁸⁷ that Buddhist nuns cut off their hair and put on orange-coloured robes. In Mahārāṣṭra brāhmaṇa widows a few years ago wore a garment that was reddish (and even now a few old widows do wear it). At all events the practice is not very old and hardly any digest before the Madanapārijāta (14th century) quotes the Skandapurāṇa text. The practice is dying out and deserves to be suppressed at once, though strange insistence on it sometimes obtains public notoriety. Recently the worshippers in the famous shrine of Viṭhobā at Pandharpur in Mahārāṣṭra prevented an untonsured brāhmaṇa widow from having *darśana* of the idol in the customary way i. e. by placing the head on the feet of the idol, while they were prepared to allow untonsured widows of all castes (except the so called untouchables), and even Hindu prostitutes in the keeping of Christians or Mahomedans to have *darśana* in that way. The matter came before a civil court, where it was decided in favour of the widow that no such discrimination could be allowed to prevail, but owing to certain unforeseen circumstances the case did not come before the Bombay High Court.