History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c31.s1.1.1

v2.c31.s1.1.1

In the Vedic literature there are at least some texts capable of being interpreted as relating to the remarriage of widows and we have the word 'punarbhū'. But as regards divorce there is absolutely nothing in the Vedic texts nor is there much in post-vedic literature. The theory of dharmaśāstra writers is that marriage when completed by homa and saptapadī is indissoluble. Manu IX. 101 says 'Let mutual fidelity (between husband and wife) continue till death; this in brief may be understood to be the highest dharma of man and wife.' In another place Manu (IX. 46) declares 'neither by sale nor by desertion is the wife released from the husband; we understand that this is the law ordained by the Creator in former times.' The position of the writers on dharmaśāstra is that marriage is a saṁskāra, that the status of wife-hood arises from that saṁskāra, that even if the husband or wife became *patita*, the saṁskāra already performed is not annulled by that fact, that even if a wife committed adultery she still remains a wife and that when she performs a penance for her lapse, it is not necessary to have a fresh saṁskāra of marriage performed on her.¹⁴⁵⁶ We have seen (pp. 552-553) that a man was allowed to supersede a wife and marry another or others or to abandon his wife altogether in certain circumstances. But that does not amount to divorce (i. e. dissolution of the marriage tie); the marriage is still there intact. It was also shown (at pp.