History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.980

v4.c63.980

Manu IV. 134 (= Anuśāsana 104. 21 = Mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇa 34. 62-63) 'forbids a man to have sexual intercourse with another's wife and states that there is nothing so detrimental to long life as that. There are stray indications in the Vedic literature about sexual intercourse outside marriage. Vide H. of Dh. II. pp. 637-639. In Ṛg. I. 92. 4 (*adhi peśāṁsi vapate nṛtūr-iva*) there appears to be a reference to a dancing girl or *hetaira*. Wives hating (or proving false) to their husbands are believed to go to Hell in Ṛg. IV. 5. 5 (*patiripo na janayo durevāḥ*). In Ṛg. II. 29. 1 the sage prays to the Ādityas 'remove away from me sin as a woman who gives birth to a child in secret removes it' (*āre matkarta rahasūr-ivāgaḥ*). The gambler (in Ṛg. X. 34. 4) states 'others have intercourse with his wife' (*anye jāyām pari mṛśantyusya*). The word *puṁścalī* occurs in Vāj. S. XXX. 22. We have already seen (H. of Dh. II. pp. 576, 1098) how in the Varuṇapraghāsa (one of the Cāturmāsyas) the wife of the sacrificer had to confess if she had a lover and how even after she confessed to having had one she was allowed to co-operate in the sacrifice on undergoing an expiation. After a man performed the solemn sacrifice called Agnicayana he was enjoined (Tai. S. V. 6. 8. 3)⁹⁸⁸ not to approach a śūdra woman and after he performed Agnicayana twice he was not to approach another's wife (H. of Dh. vol. II. p. 1255).