History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c29.7.2

v2.c29.7.2

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.