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IX, 47.
DUTIES OF HUSBAND AND WIFE.
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another), is shot in vain, even so the seed, sown on what belongs to another, is quickly lost (to the sower).
44. (Sages) who know the past call this earth (prithivi) even the wife of Prithu ; they declare a field to belong to him who cleared away the timber, and a deer to him who (first) wounded it.
45. He only is a perfect man who consists (of three persons united), his wife, himself, and his offspring ; thus (says the Veda), and (learned) Brâhmanas propound this (maxim) likewise, “The husband is declared to be one with the wife.'
46. Neither by sale nor by repudiation is a wife released from her husband; such we know the law to be, which the Lord of creatures (Pragâpati) made of old.
47. Once is the partition (of the inheritance) made, (once is) a maiden given in marriage, (and) once does (a man) say, 'I will give;' each of those three (acts is done) once only.
44. Though the earth, after she belonged to Prithu, was possessed by many kings, yet she is called Prithivî, or Prithvî, after her first owner Prithu' (Medh., Nár.).
45. In confirmation of the first maxim the commentators adduce a passage of the Vagasaneyi-brâhmana; see also Âp. II, 14, 16.
46. The meaning is that a wife, sold or repudiated by her hushand, can never become the legitimate wife of another who may have bought or received her after she was repudiated (Medh.).
47. Yâgñ. I, 65. 'A partition (of the inheritance),' i. e. one which has been made in accordance with the law, not one made unjustly' (Gov., Kull., Rágh.). Medh. mentions two other explanations: 1. if one of the coparceners complains afterwards that he has received too little, he is entitled only to have the particular point readjusted, not to annul the whole division ;' 2. 'if after the division it appears that one of the coparceners was disqualified by bodily defects and ought not to have received a share, the portion
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