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12
DHARAMAPARIKSHA
asked them why they rose up, as they should at the sight of a dog. They told him that he had become a recluse immediately after he had been a Brahmacarin, and without going through the intermediate order by marrying a wife and seeing the face of a son. A man without a son does not go to Heaven; nor are religious mortifications successful if gone through by one in that condition. He then went away and asked men of his caste to give him a girl in marriage, but as he had becoine an old man, nobody would give his daughter to him. Thereupon he went back to the recluses and told them of this, when they advised him to marry a widow and assume the life of a householder. By doing so no sin was incurred by either party, as stated in the scriptures of the recluses ( Tapasagame). For, they said :
"In these five distressful conditions, viz., when the husband has reno inced the world, is an eunuch, is not found, has fallen away from caste, or is dead, another husband is allowed to women."
The text on this subject occurring in the Smrtis of Parasara and Narada, and also in that of Manu, according to a statement of Madhava contained in his commentary on Parasara, though not found there now, is :
have
The difference between the two texts is little; the words are merely transpo:sed in the first line, and we have for . This transposition, however, allows of the proper locative of being used without the violation of the metre.
In connection with another story of a remarriage, the Brahmans of Kusumapura are represented to have said to Manovega, who had on that occasion appeared there in the form of an ascetic, "Even if a woman is married once, when through ill-luck the husband dies, it is fit that she should go through the cere inony (of marriage ) again, provided there has been no cohabitation. When the husband has gone away from home, a good wife should wait for eight years if she has already borne a child, and for four if she has not. If husbands in five such conditions are taken when there is reason, the women do not incur sin. This is what Vyasa and others say."
From all this, it follows that widow-marriage was not a thing unheard of in 1014 A.D., and that the principal Smrti texts were very well-known at the time and quoted in support of it.
The story goes on. Mandapa Kausika married a widow as directed ly the recluses; and they lived together as husband and wife. A girl was born to ther, and she grew to be a woman of uncommon beauty. Her name was Chaya. Subsequently, Mandapa Kausika conceived the idea of going with his wife on a pilgrimage to holy places; but as Chaya, on account of her tender age, could not be taken along with them, he was for a long time considering who would be the proper person to whose care he should commit her. Brahman, Visnu, and Siva would not do, on account of their various misdeeds in matters of women, which are here narrated in detail and with zest; and the only person fit to take care of the girl was Yama, the God of Death. The father committed the girl to his care and went away with his wife.
