Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/352

 formed in the case of a widow taking another husband, "The holy nuptial texts," says Manu in Chap. 8, Verse 226, "are applied solely to virgins, and no-where on earth to girls who have lost their virginity." Again in Chapter 9. Verse 47. "Once is the partition of an inheritance made, once is a damsel given in marriage, and once does a man say 'I give.' These three are by good men done once for all and irrecoverably." It will, therefore, be necessary to prescribe a new ritual in opposition to the dictates of Hindu Law and Religion to prevent its being a source of much litigation, which it otherwise necessarily lead to. Such a result cannot surely be the object of the Bill which is now before your Honorable Council. Your Petitioners also beg leave to submit that many Hindu widows, if re-married, at an early age, under the proposed law, might regard their second union as a degradation and wrong, when at a mature age they come to know the religion and laws of their country.

"8. Under these circumstances your petitioners beg leave to submit that the Bill "to remove all legal obstacles to the marriage of Hindu widows" should not be passed into law, and that your Petitioners, and the rest of their countrymen, who prefer to follow the established laws and usages of their country, will be permitted to continue in the enjoyment of their civil rights as they have heretofore done.

"And your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray.

"RAJA RADHAKANT BAHADUR,

"And Thirty-six Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-three other signatures."

", 17th March 1856.