History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.271

v7.c93.271

This distinction between Kratvartha and Puruṣārtha is often taken over into Dharmaśāstra matters. For example, Yāj. I. 53 provides that one should marry a girl who is free from diseases, has a brother and who does not belong to the same gotra or pravara as that of the bridegroom. The Mit ²⁰⁰⁷ explains that the status of being a wife does not at all arise if the girl is a *sapiṇḍa* or is of the same *gotra* or *pravara* as the bridegroom (i. e. marriage itself is null and void), but a girl who has some disease when married becomes a wife, the only result being that there is a visible defect (such as a diseased wife is a constant source of anxiety and unhappiness). Kullūka on Manu III. 7 (providing that one should not marry a girl from a family in which prevail diseases like phthisis, epilepsy, white and black leprosy, refers to this doctrine of Śabara elaborated above. The Mit. on Yāj III. 280 quotes a verse 'a wise man should not marry a girl who has no brother, nor father, for fear that she may be a *putrikā* (daughter appointed as a son).' Here the prohibition is like the prohibition of marrying a deformed girl i. e. it is a perceptible purpose. Therefore, the marriage would be valid i. e. the prohibition is puruṣārtha. Manu says (IX. 168) 'that is known to be an adopted son whom the mother or father might give (to another) with water in a time of distress &c.'. The Mit. on Yāj. II. 130 quotes this verse and remarks that, as the word 'distress' is specifically mentioned, a son is not to be given in adoption to another when there is no distress and that this prohibition would affect only the giver (but not the act of adoption) i. e. this prohibition would be puruṣārtha and not kratvartha.²⁰⁰⁸ It may be noted that the Vyavahāramayūkha disagrees and holds that the prohibition is kratvartha. It may be said in a general way that those prescriptions that have an invisible, spiritual or other-worldly result or reward are kratvartha, while those that have a visible result are puruṣārtha.