________________
Marriage and Position of Woman
175
and widow remarriage were governed by local customs and to that extent the position of woman in this respect varied from place to place. When a woman becomes a widow, she is placed in a precarious condition and the treatment accorded to her has an important bearing on her social position. The lot of the widow helps to find out the attitude of society towards women as a class. The first question to be dealt in connection with a widow was whether she was allowed to survive her husband, or she was compelled to die with him. Hindus adopted the policy of sacrificing the wife at the husband's death right from 300 B. C. up to A. D. 1829 when
custom of sati was prohibited by law.207 Contrary to this we do not find any instance of self-immolation or the custom of sati in Jaina texts. There is only one stray reference in the Mahānisiha where a widowed daughter of a certain king wanted to perform sati, but she refrained from doing so as that custom was not in vogue in her father's family. 208 From the Epigraphia Carnatica we find that there were 41 cases of Satis during the period of A. D. 1400 to 1600 and out of these two belonged to the Jainas. This sho that some Jaiņas had by that time begun to feel that they ought not to lag behind the Hindus in this matter, 209 but it is clear that this feeling did not find general acceptance in the Jaina community as the number of Jaina satis was far low than that of Hindu satīs. Apart from self-immolation there were three courses open for widows in ancient times. They could either pass their remaining life in widowhood, or have some children by levirate (niyoga), or remarry regularly. The second course was not prescribed by the Jainas; the third course was regulated by local customs and in all probability was adopted by a very small section and, therefore, the first course, which was considered more honourable, was open to the Jaina widows. As the full religious freedom was allowed to females, widows could devote their time for their spiritual upliftment and thus carve out a respectable position for them in their family and in the minds of people in general. It will be presently shown that her legal position was better because she inherited the property of her deceased husband and hence could pass her widowhood without any serious economic difficulty. Further, Jaina widows were free from the ugly custom of tonsure followed by the Hindu widows from about A.D. 1200. Among Jainas only nuns are used to be shaved and
