History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c29.7
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c29.7
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The Baud. Dh. S.¹³⁶³ II. 2. 66–68 prescribes that the widow of the departed should give up for one year honey, meat, wine and salt and should sleep on the ground; according to Maudgalya (she should so act) for six months; after that period, if she is sonless, she may procreate a son from her brother-in-law if the elders consent.' Vas. Dh. S. (17. 55–56) contains similar provisions. Manu (V. 157–160) contains rules that have been repeated in almost all smṛtis 'a woman when her husband is dead, may, if she chooses, emaciate her body by subsisting on flowers, roots and fruits, but she should not even take the name of a stranger male. Till her death she should be forbearing, observe vows, should be celibate and should hanker after that super-eminent code of conduct that is prescribed for women devoted to their husbands. On her husband's death, if a virtuous woman abides by the rule of celibacy, she goes to heaven though she be sonless, as the ancient perpetual students (like Sanaka) did'. Kātyāyana ¹³⁶⁴ similarly provides 'a sonless widow preserving the bed of her husband (unsullied) and residing with her elders and being self-controlled (or forbearing) should enjoy her husband's property till her death; after her the heirs of her husband would get it. A widow engrossed in religious observances and fasts, abiding by the vow of celibacy, always bent on restraining her senses and making gifts would go to heaven even though sonless.' Parāśara IV. 31 is almost the same as Manu V.
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160. Bṛhaspati ¹³⁶⁵ says 'the wife is declared to be half of a man's body, she participates equally in the husband's merit and sin; a virtuous wife, whether she burns herself on her husband's funeral fire or lives after him, tends to the (spiritual) benefit of her husband'. Vṛddha-Hārīta (XI. 205-210) prescribes what a widow should do all her life. 'She should give up adorning her hair, chewing betel-nut, wearing perfumes, flowers, ornaments and dyed clothes, taking food from a vessel of bronze, taking two meals a day, applying collyrium to her eyes; she should wear a white garment, should curb her senses and anger, she should not resort to deceits and tricks, should be free from laziness and sleep, should be pure and of good conduct, should always worship Hari, should sleep on the ground at night on a mat of kuśa grass, she should be intent on concentration of mind and on the company of the good.' Bāṇa in his Harṣacarita (VI, last para) indicates that widows did not apply eye-salve to their eyes nor *rocanā* (yellow pigment) to their face and simply tied their hair.¹³⁶⁶ Pracetas ¹³⁶⁷ forbids to an ascetic and a widow the chewing of betel leaves, ceremonial bath (with oil &c.) and taking meal in a vessel of bell-metal. The Ādiparva (160. 12) says 'just as birds flock to a piece of flesh left on the ground, so all men woo (or try to seduce) a woman whose husband is dead'; while the Śāntiparva (148.
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2) remarks 'all widows are in sorrow even if they have many sons.'¹³⁶⁸ The Skandapurāṇa (Kāśīkhaṇḍa, chap. 4, vv. 71-106 and III Brahmāraṇya section chap. 7, vv. 67-81) has long passages on the duties of widows, many verses from which are quoted in the Madanapārijāta (pp. 202-203), the Nirṇayasindhu, Dharmasindhu and other nibandhas. A few striking verses may be translated here. The Skandapurāṇa (III, Brahmāraṇya section chap. 7, verses 50-51) says 'The widow is more inauspicious than all other inauspicious things; at the sight of a widow no success can be had in any undertaking; excepting one's (widowed) mother all widows are void of auspiciousness; a wise man should avoid even their blessings like the poison of a snake'¹³⁶⁹. The Kāśīkhaṇḍa of the same purāṇa, chap. 4, delivers itself thus 'the tying up into a braid of the hair by the widow leads to the bondage of the husband; therefore a widow should always shave her head. She should always take one meal a day and never a second; or she may perform the observance of fast for a month or undergo the penance of cāndrāyaṇa. A widow who sleeps on a cot would make her husband fall (in hell). A widow should never wash her body with fragrant unguents nor should enjoy the fragrance of sweet smelling things; she should everyday perform *tarpaṇa* with sesame, water and kuśa grass for her husband, his father and grandfather after repeating their names and gotra;
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she should not sit in a bullock cart even when about to die, she should not put on a bodice, should not wear dyed garments and should observe special vows in Vaiśākha, Kārtika¹³⁷⁰ and Māgha.' The verse 'vidhavā-kabari-bandho &c' (Skanda, Kāśīkhaṇḍa 4.74) is the only verse on which the medieval writers rely for prescribing continual tonsure of widows. That chapter begins by extolling the pativratā (Bṛhaspati does it with regard to Lopāmudrā, the wife of Agastya). It passes one's understanding why when a pativratā whose husband is living is before Bṛhaspati he should wax eloquent over the duties of widows (verses 71-106). Therefore this portion appears to be an interpolation in the Skandapurāṇa itself. In *Lakshmibai v. Ramchandra* I. L: R. 22 Bom. 590, it was held that the text 'vidhavā-kabari-bandho' is of doubtful validity (p. 594). Besides 69 verses of this chapter 4 are common to chap. 7 of the Dharmāraṇya section of the Skandapurāṇa (III) which precedes it. There is no reason why they should have been repeated. The Nirṇayasindhu quotes a passage from the Brahmapurāṇa as cited in the Pṛthvīcandrodaya to the effect that śrāddha food should not be got prepared by a widow belonging to another gotra.¹³⁷¹