History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.802
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.802
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The Āp. Dh. S. (II. 6. 14. 6-10) condemns the practice of giving all or most of the ancestral property to the eldest son as opposed to śāstras. The Āp. Dh. S. (II. 10. 27. 2-6), after referring to the view of some that a woman when being married is given to the whole family of the bridegroom, condemns the practice of *niyoga*.¹⁷⁸⁹ Both these practices (of *uddhāravibhāga* and of *niyoga*) are among those included in the texts on Kalivarjya. Among the earliest references in the smṛtis to practices once current, but forbidden in the Kali age is a passage of Bṛhaspati quoted by Aparārka p. 97, where *niyoga* and the numerous secondary sons are said to be impossible owing to the decadence¹⁷⁹⁰ of spiritual power among men of the Dvāpara and Kali ages. Aparārka p. 739 and the D. M. quote a passage of Śaunaka to the effect that sons other than the aurasa or dattaka are not allowed in the Kali age¹⁷⁹¹. Prajāpati (verse 151) refers¹⁷⁹² to the ancient practice of offering meat and wine in śrāddhas, but prescribes that these should be eschewed in the Kali age. Vyāsa¹⁷⁹³ quoted in the Nirṇayasindhu and other works forbids the setting of the three vedic fires and of resorting to sannyāsa after 4400 years of Kali. The Laghu-Āśvalāyana¹⁷⁹⁴ smṛti (21. 14–15) states that the two kinds of sons called Kuṇḍa and Golaka were permitted in former ages and had the saṁskāras performed on them, but are condemned in the Kali age.
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Viśvarūpa and Medhātithi, it is worth noting, do not quote a single verse about Kalivarjya. On Yāj. III. 30 Viśvarūpa tries to reconcile Parāśara III. 5 (saying that a brāhmaṇa who is learned in the Veda and keeps the sacred Vedic fires becomes free from impurity in a day) with Parāśara III. 8 (that for ten days on impurity due to birth or death the food of that family becomes unpartakable for others). He does not accept the idea that the period of impurity is only one day for a learned man, but explains that Parāśara III. 5 is only an *arthavāda* meant for glorifying the study of Veda and the keeping of sacred fires. Among later commentators it is stated that the narrowing down of the periods of impurity on the ground of Veda study is forbidden in the Kali age. As this explanation is not offered by Viśvarūpa it is not unreasonable to infer that Viśvarūpa was not aware of the passage on this point quoted from the Ādityapurāṇa. Medhātithi¹⁷⁹⁵ also (on Manu IX. 112) refers to the opinion of some that the smṛti passages about niyoga and uddhāra-vibhāga were applicable only in bygone ages, since smṛtis are restricted to certain ages (vide Manu I. 85); but he refutes that view and explains Manu I. 85 by saying that the meaning is that the dharmas (i. e. qualities or natures of things) change from age to age as they do from season to season. From this it is clear that he did not accept that certain practices current in one age were forbidden in others.
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Vijñāneśvara¹⁷⁹⁶ quotes a single verse which condemns the practice of niyoga, the giving of a special share to the eldest son and the killing of a cow in a sacrifice as not allowable in the Kali age. That verse is said by the Sm. C. II. p. 266 to have occurred in the Saṅgraha (i. e. the work called Smṛtisaṅgraha); The Sm. C. quotes a verse of Kratu which forbids four acts in Kali, viz. niyoga, remarriage of a married girl, killing a cow in sacrifices and the taking of a jar.¹⁷⁹⁷ The Nāradīya-mahāpurāṇa contains four verses about Kalivarjya stating that certain practices which were once allowed are forbidden in the Kali age, viz. sea voyage, the carrying of a jar of water, marrying a girl of a class lower than one's own, *niyoga*, killing of an animal in Madhuparka; offering of flesh in śrāddhas, the stage of a forest hermit, remarriage of a married girl when the marriage was not consummated, perpetual student-hood, human sacrifice, horse sacrifice, starting on the great journey, the sacrifice of a cow¹⁷⁹⁸. Aparārka (pp. 15, 63) quotes one verse and a half from the Brahmapurāṇa about certain Kalivarjyas viz. perpetual student-hood, the carrying of a *kamaṇḍalu*, marriage with a sagotra or sapiṇḍa girl, the killing of a cow, human sacrifice, horse sacrifice, drinking intoxicating liquors¹⁷⁹⁹. This could not be traced to the Brahmapurāṇa, but the Prāyaścitta-tattva (p.
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520) expressly states that these were cited from the Brahmapurāṇa in the works of Halāyudha, Śūlapāṇi and in the Gṛhastharatnākara (i. e. from about the 12th century onwards). Aparārka (p. 98) quotes another passage from the Brahmapurāṇa¹⁸⁰⁰, which condemns remarriage of women, niyoga, independence of women, on the ground that men in the Kali age are sinners. Aparārka (p. 233) quotes two verses from a smṛti (without name) the first of which prohibits six acts, viz. killing a cow in sacrifice, niyoga (of husband's brother), the performance of *sattras*, taking a water jar, use of wine (in sautrāmaṇi), being an ascetic (of the *paramahaṁsa* type) and the second prohibits five, viz. human sacrifice, cow sacrifice, the taking of a kamaṇḍalu, niyoga, and the remarriage of a girl whose marriage has not been consummated. Aparārka (p. 233) quotes a passage from the Mārkaṇḍeya recommending the offering of a golden vessel in place of the cow in Madhuparka and stating that Bhṛgu laid down that no animal was to be sacrificed in Kali. The Sm. C. (I. p. 12) quotes a Purāṇa passage that 'the remarriage of a married woman, special share to the eldest son, the killing of a cow, niyoga and the taking of a kamaṇḍalu—these five are to be avoided in Kali¹⁸⁰¹. Hemādri and the Sahyādri-khaṇḍa state, 'Agnihotra, the killing of a cow, *sannyāsa*, offering of meat in śrāddha and raising of a son by the husband's brother—these five were¹⁸⁰² to be avoided in Kali.
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Hemādri in Dānakhaṇḍa quotes a passage from the Garuḍapurāṇa in which seven matters are mentioned as forbidden in Kali, viz. Aśvamedha, Gosava, human sacrifice, Rājasūya, remarriage even of a girl whose first marriage was not consummated, the carrying of a kamaṇḍalu and procreation of a son on a widow by her husband's brother. The Smṛtyarthasāra (p. 2) mentions twenty-six Kalivarjyas without expressly citing the name of any work. In the Sm. C., the Caturvargacintāmaṇi of Hemādri (III. part 2 p. 666), the Par. M. I. part 1 pp. 131-137, the Madanapārijāta (pp. 15-16), Madanaratna (samayoddyota), the Udvāha-tattva (p. 112), the Samaya-mayūkha, the Samayaprakāśa of Mitramiśra (pp. 261-263), the Nirṇayasindhu (III, pūrvārdha at end), Bhaṭṭoji on Caturviṁśati-mata, the Smṛtimuktāphala (varṇāśrama p. 13), the Smṛtikaustubha, the Dharma-sindhu (pp. 357-358) and some other works quote long passages from a purāṇa (which in some of them is specified as the Ādityapurāṇa) that mentions about 50 Kalivarjyas¹⁸⁰³. There is a work called Kalivarjyavinirṇaya or Kalivarjyanirṇaya composed by Dāmodara elder brother of Nīlakaṇṭha (first half of 17th century A. D.), who in his Samayamayūkha refers to it. It quotes the Ādityapurāṇa, Brahmapurāṇa and other texts that are quoted here from Hemādri and other older digests¹⁸⁰⁴.