History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c31.13

v2.c31.13

Āp. Dh. S. II. 6. 13. 3-4 condemns remarriage 'if one has intercourse with a woman who had already another husband, or with a woman on whom no marriage saṁskāra has taken place or who is of a different varṇa, then sin is incurred; in that case the son also is sinful'. Haradatta quotes Manu III. 174 and says that the son procreated on another's wife is called *kuṇḍa* if the husband is living, and *golaka* if the husband is dead. Manu V. 162 is opposed to the remarriage of widows 'nowhere is a second husband declared for virtuous women'; so also Manu IX.¹⁴³⁹ 65 ('in the procedure of marriage there is no declaration about the remarriage of widows), Manu IX. 47 'a maiden can be given only once' and Manu VIII. 226 (the Vedic mantras used in pāṇigrahaṇa are applicable to maidens only) are opposed to the remarriage of widows. The Brahmapurāṇa and other purāṇas forbid remarriage of widows in the Kali age (vide note 1427 a above). The Sam. Pr. quotes a text of Kātyāyana to the effect that a girl, who has gone through the ceremony of marriage with a sagotra, may be married again and remarks that the text refers to the state of society in another *yuga*. This is the view of all the commentators and *nibandha* writers. Manu himself (in IX. 176) expressly allows the saṁskāra of remarriage in the case of a girl, whose first marriage has not been consummated or who left the husband of her youth, went to live with another and returned to the first husband. In this the author of the Manusmṛti probably only reiterates popular usage which was too much for him in spite of his own view (in V. 162) denouncing remarriages. So it may be taken that Manu does not forbid the use of mantras in remarriage, but holds that even after the mantras are recited the remarriage of a widow is not *dharmya* (approved). It is said in the Mahābhārata (Ādiparva 104. 34-37) that Dīrghatamas forbade remarriage and also *niyoga*.¹⁴⁴⁰ Manu himself speaks of the saṁskāra of a pregnant girl (IX. 172-173). Baud. Dh. S. IV. 1. 18, Vas. Dh. S. 17. 74, Yāj. I. 167 speak of the saṁskāra of remarriage (paunarbhava saṁskāra). Manu III. 155 and Yāj. I. 222 include the paunarbhava (the son of a punarbhū) among brāhmaṇas that are not to be invited at a śrāddha. Aparārka (p. 97) quotes a passage from the Brahmapurāṇa itself which speaks of a fresh saṁskāra of marriage for a child widow or for one who was forcibly abandoned or carried away by somebody.¹⁴⁴¹