Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c16.12

v2.c16.12

pleased, indeed, with the new marriage, but he only blames the uncle, and this because he has taken for himself the wife of his elder brother, her who for him is the same as a mother—a standpoint which shows a nobler, and probably for the Aryan more natural feeling than the view we found in discussing polyandry in the Mahābhārata (Rām., iv, 19.10–25 ; 29.4 ; 31.22 ; 46.9 ; 33.38 ff. ; 55.3, 14).¹ That here also the wife of the dead foe falls as natural booty to the conqueror is on the other hand probably a reflection of the older conditions, and is not to be looked on as a kind of “ apish custom ”.