History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c29.7.3

v2.c29.7.3

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;