and going to read sacred books, let him, though pure, wash his mouth. 146. This perfect system of rules for purifying men of all classes, and for cleansing inanimate things, has been declared to you hear now the laws concerning women. 147. By a girl, or by a young woman, or by a woman advanced in years, nothing must be done, even in her own dwelling place, according to her mere pleasure: 148. In childhood must a female be dependent on her father; in youth, on her husband; her lord being dead, on her sons; if she have no sons, on the near kinsmen of her husband; if he left no kinsmen, on those of her father; if she have no paternal kinsmen, on the sovereign: a woman must never seek independence. 149. Never let her wish to separate herself from her father, her husband, or her sons; for, by a separation from them, she exposes both families to contempt. 150. She must always live with a cheerful temper, with good management in the affairs of the house, with great care of the household furniture, and with a frugal hand in all her expences. 151. Him, to whom her father has given her, or her brother with the paternal assent, let her obsequiously honour, while he lives; and, when he dies, let her never neglect him. 152. The recitation of holy texts, and the sacrifice ordained by the lord of creatures, are used in marriages for the sake of procuring good fortune to brides; but the first gift, or troth plighted, by the husband, is the primary cause and origin of marital dominion. 153. When the husband has performed the nuptial rites with texts from the Véda, he gives bliss continually to his wife here below, both in season and out of season; and he will give her happiness in the next world. 154. Though inobservant of approved usages, or enamoured of another woman, or devoid of good qualities, yet a husband must constantly be revered as a god by a virtuous wife. 155. No sacrifice is allowed to women apart from their husbands, no religious rite, no fasting: as far only as a wife honours her lord, so far she is exalted in heaven. 156. A faithful wife, who wishes to attain in heaven the mansion of her husband, must do nothing unkind to him, be he living or dead. 157. Let her emaciate her body, by living voluntarily on pure flowers, roots, and fruit; but let her not, when her lord is deceased, even pronounce the name of another man. 158. Let her continue till death forgiving all injuries, performing harsh duties, avoiding every sensual pleasure, and cheerfully practising the incomparable rules of virtue, which have been followed by such women, as were devoted to one only husband. 159. Many thousands of Bráhmens, having avoided sensuality from their early youth, and having left no issue in their families, have ascended, nevertheless, to heaven; 160. And, like those abstemious men, a virtuous wife ascends to heaven, though she have no child, if, after the decease of her lord, she devote herself to pious austerity: 161. But a widow, who, from a wish to bear children, slights her deceased husband by marrying again, brings disgrace on herself here below, and shall be excluded from the seat of her lord. 162. Issue, begotten on a woman by any other than her husband, is here declared to be no progeny of hers; no more than a child, begotten on the wife of another man, belongs to the begetter: nor is a second husband allowed, in any part of this code, to a virtuous woman. 163. She, who neglects her former (púrva) lord, though of a lower class, and takes another (para) of a higher, becomes despicable in this world, and is called parapúrvá, or one who had a different husband before. 164. A married woman, who violates the duty, which she owes to her lord, brings infamy on herself in this life, and, in the next, shall enter the womb of a shakal, or be afflicted with elephantiasis, and other diseases, which punish crimes; 165. While she, who slights not her lord, but keeps her mind, speech, and body, devoted to him, attains his heavenly mansion, and by good men is called sádhwì, or virtuous. 166. Yes; by this course of life it is, that woman, whose mind, speech, and body are kept in subjection, acquires high renown in this world, and, in the next, the same abode with her husband. 167. A twice-born man, versed in sacred ordinances, must burn, with hallowed fire and fit implements of sacrifice, his wife dying before him, if she was of his own class, and lived by these rules: 168. Having thus kindled sacred fires, and performed funeral rites to his wife, who died before him, he may again marry, and again light the nuptial fire. 169. Let him not cease to perform day by day, according to the preceding rules, the five great sacraments; and, having taken a lawful consort, let him dwell in his house during the second period of his life. CHAPTER VI. ON DEVOTION; OR ON THE THIRD AND FOURTH ORDERS. 1. HAVING thus remained in the order of a housekeeper, as the law ordains, let the twice-born man, who had before completed his studentship, dwell in a forest, his faith being firm and his organs wholly subdued. 2. When the father of a family, perceives his muscles become flaccid and his hair grey, and sees the child of his child, let him then seek refuge in a forest: 3. Abandoning all food eaten in towns, and all his household utensils, let him repair to the lonely wood, committing the care of his wife to her sons, or accompanied by her, if she chuse to attend him. 4. Let him take up his consecrated fire, and all his domestick implements of making oblations to it, and, departing from the town to the forest, let him dwell in it with complete power over his organs of sense and of action. 5. With many sorts of pure food, such as holy sages used to eat, with green herbs, roots, and fruit, let him perform the five great sacraments before mentioned, introducing them with due ceremonies. 6. Let him wear a black antelope's hide, or a vesture of bark; let him bathe evening and morning; let him suffer the hairs of his head, his beard, and his nails to grow continually. 7. From such food, as himself may eat, let him, to the utmost of his power, make offerings and give alms; and with presents of water, roots, and fruit, let him honour those who visit his hermitage. 8. Let him be constantly engaged in reading the Véda; patient of all extremities, universally benevolent, with a mind intent on the Supreme Being; a perpetual giver, but no receiver of gifts; with tender affection for all animated bodies. 9. Let him, as the law directs, make oblations on the hearth with three sacred fires; not omitting in due time the ceremonies to be performed at the conjunction and opposition of the moon. 10. Let him also perform the sacrifice ordained in honour of the lunar constellations, make the prescribed offering of new grain, and solemnize holy rites every four months, and at the winter and summer solstices. 11. With pure grains, the food of ancient sages, growing in the vernal and autumnal seasons, and brought home by himself, let him severally make, as the law ordains, the oblations of cakes and boiled grain ; 12. And, having presented to the gods, that purest oblation, which the wild woods produced, let him eat what remains, together with some native salt, which himself collected. 13. Let him eat green herbs, flowers, roots, and fruit, that grow on earth or in water, and the productions of pure trees, and oils formed in fruits. 14. Honey and flesh-meat he must avoid, and all sorts of mushrooms, the plant bhústrina, that named sigruca, and the fruit of the sléshmátaca.* 15. In the month A'swina let him cast away the food of sages, which he before had laid up, and his vesture, then become old, and his herbs, roots, and fruit. 16. Let him not eat the produce of ploughed land, though abandoned by any man, who owns it, nor fruit and roots produced in a town, even though hunger oppress him. 17. He may eat what is mellowed by fire, and he may eat what is ripened by time; and either let him break hard fruits with a stone, or let his teeth serve as a pestle. 18. Either let him pluck enough for a day, or let him * The b'hústrina is a fragrant grass (andropogon schoenanthus). The sigruca is a potherb not yet specified, and is not in the dictionaries. It is different from the sigru, a tree (morunga guilandina and hyperanthera). The sléshmátaca appears to be the same mentioned by Mr. Wilson, under the form sléshmáta, a small tree (cordia myxa.) |