Page:Hindu widow re-marriage and other tracts.djvu/14



According to Manu women are always to remain under the protection of men. He has enjoined:—"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," ( 148.)

Therefore, so long as the women are unmarried they are naturally in the protection of their parents or the latter's relations in their absence. From the time they are married they go into the protection of their husbands. They should, therefore, be remarried as soon as they become widows. Most of the