Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.34

v2.c20.34

as we have already often seen in the Epic. What is common to the whole of Indian literature is the casting off of the wife as a punishment for unfaithfulness. This punishment inflicted by the husband does not put any stain on him, and on the other hand cleanses the wife (xii, 34.30). Nīlakaṇṭha says on this point, in agreement with the law writings, that the punishment and atonement lies in the sinning woman being upbraided, having only food and clothing, not being allowed near him by her husband, and being debarred from sexual intercourse.¹ walks abroad as one unclean, the house she goes into is defiled, and the Brahman may take no food from her (Parāçara, x, 32-34; Āpast., i, 7, 19.16). As we have already been told, in losing her virtue she has also lost her womanhood and rights as a woman : if anyone kills her, he is practically left unpunished. But besides this there are, it is true, milder views enough. According to an old verse quoted by Manu, viii, 317, and Vasisṭha, xix, 44, the adulteress is not guilty in any way, but the guilt falls on her lord and master, who should have made the mistake impossible. The same view, it would seem, is found also among the Maori; for among them the kinsfolk of a woman take a bitter revenge on the husband for a sexual offence on her part. Hartland, i, 279; cp. ii, 33. And among the Baganda he has to pay them a heavy fine, for he should have looked after her. Her offence becomes known through her dying in child-bed. Hartland, i, 276 (cp. here e.g. also *Zeitschr. f. Ethnol.*, v, p. 262). And in other cases too the general rule with mankind, which spares, and often even exalts, the man sinner in things of sex, but crushes the woman, is often reversed. See e.g. *Anthropos*, iv, 315; Hartland, ii, 220; Wright, *Hist. of Nepal*, p. 33 (among the Mewār in Nepal). The forbearance with which the adulterous wife is treated might be called something quite without example when set against the often very great severity shown towards the man sinner, such as we find in the Old Indian literature, in the Purāṇas and elsewhere. Of this we have already often been told (pp. 206; 220; 227; 249 f.; 312; etc.). Here we will only give some further matter in short form from MBh., K, xiii, 58 f. and Agni-pur., 165.6 f., 19 ff. Since the woman is not sullied by any sexual intercourse, or, anyhow, the uncleanness is always carried away by her monthly flow, the husband must not cast off the unfaithful wife. The woman's vulva is there for the member of all. But on the husband falls a very heavy guilt. Only when the wife becomes pregnant by a man of lower caste may the husband, according to MBh., K, cast her off, while the Agnipur. even then lays down : he shall wait till the "thorn" or "sorrow-bringing foreign body" (çalya) has come out of her through birth, and she has menstruated again; then she is "clean" again for him. Between the ṛitu times (tirthāntare) her vulva is quite free to all, says MBh., K, repeatedly (cp. p. 121 in the present work). See also Meyer, *Altind. Rechtsschr.*, 22 f.; 73; 141; 167; 342.