History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.602.5

v4.c63.t2.602.5

From this it follows that variations in practices were to be tolerated by the king. Bṛhaspati¹⁶⁷¹ advises the king to keep intact the customs of countries, castes and families that have been long in vogue in them and states that otherwise the subjects become irritated and disaffected and there is loss of wealth and army. He gives certain striking illustrations of peculiar practices: 'members of the twice-born classes in the southern countries take in marriage their maternal uncle's daughter; in the middle country (the country between the Himālaya and the Vindhya lying to the west of Prayāga and to the east of Vinaśana where the Sarasvatī disappears, as said by Manu II. 21) artisans and menial workers eat the flesh of a cow; in the eastern countries people (all including brāhmaṇas) eat fish and women are given to adultery; in the north women drink liquor and contact with them even in their monthly illness is allowed; the people of the *Khaśa* country take as wives the widows of their own brothers; these several people are not liable to undergo punishment or penance because of their doing these things in the respective countries'. Medieval writers differed about the meaning of the last half verse. The Madanaratna said (acc. to V. P. p. 22) that there is neither punishment nor prāyaścitta when the above practices which are opposed to smṛti texts are indulged in by the inhabitants of the countries specified, while the V. P. p.