Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/346

 any second marriage are held to be illegitimate and incapable of inheriting property; and whereas many Hindus believe that this imputed legal incapacity, although it is in accordance with established custom, is not in accordance with a true interpretation of the precepts of their religion, and desire that the Civil law administered by the Courts of Justice, shall no longer prevent those Hindus who may be so minded from adopting a different custom in accordance with the dictates of their own consciences," &c.

"3. Your Petitioners beg leave to observe that the re-marriage of Hindu females is not only not in accordance with the established usages of Hindus, but is likewise repugnant to the precepts of their religion and the ordinations of Hindu law, from which all their social institutions have originated. Though there are different tribes of Hindus, who speak different tongues, follow different codes of laws, wear different dresses, and have different customs and usages, yet they are all unanimous in reprehending the marriage of their widows, in consequence of its being against the positive injunctions of their law, and the interpretations of that law by different commentators of ancient and modern times. The Yajur Veda in the Taittiriya Shakha declares that "as round a single Yupa (sacrificial post) two tethers can be tied, so one person can marry two wives. As one tether cannot be tied round two Yupas, so one female can not marry two husbands." The most ancient and revered of our lawgivers, Manu, says in Chapter V. verse 161, that "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." And also at the following verse, "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