Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/347

304 in any part of this code to a virtuous woman." The same authority further directs in Chapter IX verses 64 and 65, that "by men of twice-born classes no widow or childless wife must be authorised, to conceive by any other than her lord; for they who authorize her to conceive by any other, violate the primeval law. Such a commission to a brother, or other near kinsman, is nowhere mentioned in the nuptial texts of the Veda; nor is the marriage of a widow even named in the laws concerning marriage." The Mahabharat, too, lays down that "a woman is to have only one husband, upon whom she must depend through her whole life." These ordinations in the highest sacred works of the Hindus, added to the long established custom and usage of the country, against the marriage of widows, will, your Petitioners trust, weigh more in the estimation of your Honorable Council than the forced construction of any solitary text apparently in its favour, but quite unsupported by a single instance of such marriage having ever been legally contracted in any period of the annals of the Hindus. Your Honorable Council will thus perceive that the marriage of Hindu widows is not in accordance with the dictates of Hindu law, as it is stated in the preamble to the Bill for the removal of legal obstacles to such marriages.

"4. Your Petitioners further beg leave to submit that the proposed law is also at variance with the several Statutes of the British Parliament and the Regulations of the East India Company, by which the natives of this country have from time to time been assured that their rights of marriage and inheritance shall not be disturbed or violated. Section 23 of Regulation I. of 1772, which was re-enacted in Section 15 of Regulation IV. of 1793, ordains that, in all suits regarding succession, inheritance, marriage, and caste, and all religious usages and institutions, the Mahomedan law shall prevail in respect of Mahomedans and the Hindu law in regard to Hindus. This is also laid down in