[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915) › v2.c20.3 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.3 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.3 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c20.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c20.3) ² Here the Kaffirs, for instance, are quite logical. Among them the son inherits also his father's widows; his mother he does not touch, but may sell her. Usually he lets children be produced for him by her "as everyone's wife". Post, \*Einleit. i. d. Studium d. ethnol. Jurisprudenz\*, p. 38. So, too, the wives of the dead father fall to the son, and he takes them to wife, among the Batamba in East Africa (\*Anthropos\*, vi, 378); among the old Persians, Egyptians, and Israelites (Ed. Meyer, \*Gesch. d. Altertums\*, i, I³, p. 28); among the pre-Mohammedan Arabs (Welhausen, \*Gött. Nachr.\*, 1893, p. 455); etc. The woman is currency, indeed, in many places in the world; \*vasu\*, thing, valuable object, she is called times beyond reckoning in the Epic also. The Rājput's wergild is land or a daughter to wife (Tod, \*Rajasthan\*, i, 194). - [Previous: v2.c20.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c20.2) - [Next: v2.c20.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c20.4) - [Up: v2.c20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c20) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c20.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c20.3) · Pramāṇa