Sambodhi 1996 Vol 20

Author(s): Jitendra B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 55

Vol. XX, 1996
NIRAVASITA
Āryan by an Aryan woman is worthy of all sacramentssi. Another motivating force of all those who believe in the authority of the Veda is their resolve to uphold by all means the religion of sacrifice. So all the authors of the Śrautasūtras are unanimous in maintaining that the sacrificer and the officiating priest should be endowed with eminent parentage, family, learning and character 2. Even though the women were originally allowed to recite the Vedas and participate in the sacrifices and perform certain rites in lieu of their husbands, they were discriminated in the rights to engage in academic pursuits, to own property and to follow independently the religious practices. The brahmin woman was the first lady to be abondoned by a bralimin who is a vouched custodian of the religion of sacrifice. The belief of the superiority of the clan, anxiety to perpetuate the clan clean and desire to establish a strong Aryan hold must be strong reasons to forsake a female member of the family53. So when a woman was forsaken by a brahmin for the community, her husband should also be forsaken by a südra family, in order to honour the social mandate and to maintain liarmony in the division of labour. The banished family gets complete residential segregation, exclusion from public institutions, educational discrimination and loss of profession51.
VIII
Not only the brahmin woman, but also a brahmin is excommunicated when he is involved in adultery and incest with the teacher's wife, teacher's daughter, sister, sister-in-law (i.e. elder brother's wife to younger brother, and younger brother's wife to elder brother), maternal uncle's wife, mother's sister, father's sister, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister's daughter and friend's wifes. Manu says that the wife of the elder brother is for his younger brother the teacher's wife (gurupatnī) and the wife of the younger brother to an elder brother is like a daughter-in-law. Therefore, if an elder brother approaches the wife of his younger brother, or if an younger brother approaches the wife of his elder brother, both of them are treated alike as fallen out of the Aryan community (patita)56. If an elder brother approaches his brother's wife, he becomes adulterer (jāra)57 and guilty of incest by defiling the bed of a daughter-in-law (snuşāga) 58, and is expelled as an out-caste. Yājñavalkya says that to crave for the wives of a son and his own daughter is a sin equal to that of violating a precepter's bed and he should be killed after having his generative organ cut offs Even though Manu mentions widow remarriage and levirate (niyoga) in