History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c31.22.1

v2.c31.22.1

Certain passages of the Atharvaveda may be considered in connection with the question of the remarriage of widows. Atharva-Veda V. 17. 8-9 are¹⁴⁴⁵ 'when a woman has at first even ten husbands, who are not brāhmaṇas, if a brāhmaṇa takes hold of her hand (i. e. marries her), he alone is her (real) husband. A brāhmaṇa alone is (a real) husband, not a kṣatriya or a vaiśya—the sun goes proclaiming this to the five (tribes of) men'. The first verse is not to be taken literally in the sense that a woman married ten persons in succession and that the 11th was a brāhmaṇa; the first verse contains rather what is called '*prauḍhivāda*' (pompous assertion or boast) and this is indicated by the word '*uta*'. The verse may at the most mean that if a woman has first a kṣatriya or vaiśya as husband, and she marries on his death a brāhmaṇa, then the brāhmaṇa is the real husband. The word '*pati*' may also have been used loosely and all that is meant may be that if a girl is promised to ten persons one after another and then lastly to a brāhmaṇa, the latter is to be accepted as the best. Another passage¹⁴⁴⁶ of the Atharvaveda ( IX. 5. 27-28 ) is ' whatever woman, having first married one husband, marries another, if they (two) offer a goat with five rice dishes they would not be separated (from each other). The second husband secures the same world with his remarried wife, when he offers a goat accompanied with five rice dishes and with the light of fees'. Here the word *punarbhū* occurs.