Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.108

v1.c6.108

Viṣṇu, xv, 7 ff. she is one that has been married for the second time as a virgin, or that has lived with another man before her marriage at law; according to Manu, ix, 175 she is one whose husband has left her, or is dead, and who has married again. Yājñavalkya, i, 67 says : one that is, or is not harmed in her maidenhead, and that lets herself be “ dedicated ” for the second time (cp. Manu, ix, 176). According to Nārada, xii, 45 ff., there are three kinds of punarbhū, of which each is worse than the one following : (1) the girl that has not, indeed, lost her maidenhead, but has lost her honour through an earlier taking by the hand ; (2) a woman that has run off from the husband of her youth, and gone to another, but has afterwards come back to the first husband ; (3) a woman that is given to a sapiṇḍa of the same caste, because there are no brothers-in-law. Elsewhere there are also other interpretations of the term.