History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c31.2.2

v2.c31.2.2

(4) a woman who is given to a stranger by the elders relying on the usages of the country, but who incurs the blame of wantonness¹⁴³¹ (as the smṛti rules about niyoga are not observed by them or her). Nārada says that each preceding one of the punarbhūs and svairiṇīs enumerated is inferior to the next in order. Yāj. (I. 67) does not give this elaborate classification; all he says is that a punarbhū is of two kinds, one whose marriage had not been consummated and another who has had sexual intercourse and that both have the marriage ceremony performed again (i. e. punarbhū is one who is 'punaḥ saṁskṛtā); a svairiṇī is one who forsakes the husband whom she married when a maiden and lives with another man of the same caste through love for the latter. Viśvarūpa on Yāj. I. 67 remarks that the elaborate classification of Nārada and Śaṅkha (3 punarbhūs and 4 svairiṇīs) is not of much use, that it only indicates the various degrees of blame (or sin) attaching to them and is also meant to discriminate among prāyaścittas to be performed by those women. It is the second husband and the son of the second marriage that bear the appellation 'paunarbhava' (pati or putra respectively) and not the first husband. Vide Saṁ. Pr. pp. 740-741. The Sm. C. (I. p. 75) quotes a passage from Baudhāyana and certain verses of Kaśyapa. According to Kaśyapa¹⁴³² the seven kinds of punarbhū are: (1) the girl who had been promised in marriage, (2) one who was intended to be given;