History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c30.24

v2.c30.24

Owing to the bewildering and often conflicting rules about niyoga in the smṛtis, commentators like Viśvarūpa, Medhātithi, who wrote at a time when niyoga was almost unheard of, made heroic though unsatisfactory efforts to bring order out of chaos. Viśvarūpa on Yāj. I. 69 states several views on the point. The first is that niyoga is bad in the present age as opposed to smṛti texts (like Manu IX. 64 and 68) and to the usage of the śiṣṭas (respectable people). The second view was the same as Manu IX. 69 set out above. A third view was that there was an option (as niyoga was both forbidden and allowed). A fourth view (which seems to be the view of Viśvarūpa himself) was that the smṛti texts about niyoga refer to śūdras ¹⁴²⁴ (Manu IX. 64 uses the word 'dvijāti') and it was also allowed to royal families, when there was no male to succeed (and only a brāhmaṇa was to be appointed) and Viśvarūpa relies upon two verses of Vṛddhamanu¹⁴²⁵ and a gāthā of Vāyu. Viśvarūpa further says that the procreation of sons by Vyāsa from the queens of Vicitravīrya should be paid no heed (i. e. is not to be relied on) like the marriage of Draupadī (to the five Pāṇḍavas). The Mahābhārata probably reflects what happened owing to the incessant internecine wars among the princes of India. Whole princely houses must have been slaughtered. If niyoga was prevalent among them, the males appointed, when they had to be of the same caste, would have been ordinary soldiers (kṣatriyas). The proud princely families very likely thought it below their dignity to associate widowed queens with ordinary kṣatriyas. It is possible to hold that they chose brāhmaṇas for appointment, as the latter were deemed to be higher than even kings in the spiritual domain. It is impossible to believe that brāhmaṇas, who had no temporal power, could coerce the proud and warlike caste into choosing brāhmaṇas for niyoga, unless the teaching of the smṛtis fell in with the notions of the ruling houses themselves to some extent at least.