Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.35

v2.c20.35

¹ “Public punishments for adulteresses are only spoken of in general for particularly glaring cases; they are then to suffer a more severe death penalty (M., 8, 371; Vi., 5, 18; etc.); in ordinary cases it was only the jurisdiction of the injured husband or his family that came into action.” Jolly, Recht u. Sitte, p. 128. Yājñav., i, 70, 72, ordains: Let him (the husband) leave the unfaithful wife to dwell robbed of her dignity, dirty, living only on a mouthful, despised, and sleeping on the ground; but if she has got with child by the stranger, then it is laid down she shall be cast off. Manu, xi, 177 f., is not so severe. In Nārada (xii, 91-92) we find: Where she is unfaithful to her husband, there is, for the woman, shaving the head, sleeping on the bare ground, bad food, and bad clothing (or: bad housing, kuvāsas), and for work the removal of garbage and rubbish. Vasisṭha ordains: If the woman has really committed adultery she shall for one year wear a garment smeared with melted butter, and sleep on a mat of (holy) kuça-grass, or in a pit with (purifying) cows’ dung. At the end of the year the husband shall make a sacrifice in fire, reciting 108 times the Gāyātrī, and the formula: “Water is light, water is the deathless,” and she at the same time shall bathe in water. Then she is cleansed once more. But she must be cast off, if she gives herself to the Guru, or to her husband’s disciple, or to a man of lower caste; and if she at the time of her ṛitu has carnal intercourse with another man, then she loses all religious and social rights (xxi, 8-10). According to Baudh., ii, 2, 3.48, the adulteress must do kṛicchra. And so on. But if the faithless wife has atoned for her sin, then she must be treated just as before her misdeed. Āpast., ii, 10, 27.1. A stirring picture of the delights and the woes of adultery is given in Kuṭṭanīm., strophes 789-838. Here the casting out from the family, the censure by people, danger to life, the journey to hell, and other pains are given as the lot of the wife forgetful of virtue. The cutting off of the nose, riding an ass, and so on is well enough known out of Indian literature. The adulteress