Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c9.s4.7

c9.s4.7

If the husband has gone away and there is no news of him, a brāhmaṇa lady should wait for him for eight years in case she has born children from him; if she has no children then she should wait only for four years and then remarry. The time limit for the women of other castes is still lower.²⁸ Kauṭilya’s follows Nārada in general; but he specifically instructs a lady to leave a man who has committed a sin, is convicted, is impotent, suffers from an incurable desease or is cruel.²⁹ He also prescribes divorce if both the husband and the wife do not like each other; but divorce is to be provided neither to the wife if she hates him for not liking her. In case both of them do not like each other, then they should be divorced. A man seeking divorce from a woman going against him may be obliged but not the woman. There is, however, no provision for a formal divorce in the marriages performed through Vedic rites.³⁰ But then, all law givers, cited above, make provision of going to another man in exceptional circumstances like the husband being impotent, etc. This only means that a lady having entered into a sacred bond of marriage, sanctified by Vedic rites, can leave her husband in these circumstances and start another life in a partnership. This living in partnership is in fact nothing less than marriage, as the lady gets all the benefits under the law.