History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.376

v5.c71.s1.376

If a woman be guilty of a Mahāpātaka the general rule stated by Manu XI. 176 (latter half), Kātyāyana and Bṛhaspati²³⁸ was that whatever penance was prescribed for a male in cases of adultery with other's wives the same was to be administered to women in case of adultery with males. In this particular case the rule about half penance being prescribed for women did not hold good when a woman with full knowledge committed adultery and half penance was to be prescribed only where the adultery was through mistake. A similar rule was laid down by Aṅgiras238a. If a woman became *patita* and did not undergo prāyaścitta she could be excommunicated by the process called *ghaṭasphoṭa* (described in H. of Dh. vol. III pp. 615-616 and 1009). But there was a difference between a male and a woman in this respect. A woman, however, was not to be altogether abandoned on the street and left to fare for herself, though she be *patita*, but she was to be lodged in a cottage thatched with grass near the house and was to be guarded against further lapses and given bare maintenance (enough to keep body and soul together) and (dirty) clothes (Yāj. III. 296, Manu XI. 176). There were certain acts, however, which were specially condemned in women (Yāj. III. 297) viz. sexual intercourse with a man of a lower class, causing abortion and killing the husband. Vas. 21. 10 provides²³⁹ that four classes of women may be altogether abandoned (and not given even starving maintenance &c) viz. a woman who has sexual intercourse with (her husband's) pupil or with his *guru* or one who kills her husband or one who sexually approaches a man of a lower degraded class. Women, however *patita* they may be, were to be dealt with as stated in Yāj. III 296 even if they did not perform any penance Vas. 21.12 states that women of the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya classes, if guilty of sexual intercourse with a śūdra, can be purified by penance if they do not give birth to a child, but not those others (who give birth to a child born of the condemned connection). *Vide* H. of Dh. vol. III pp. 946-949 for penance and other matters in relation to adultery by men and women.