Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/353

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" your Petitioners being apprised that one Ishwar-chandar Vidyasagar, Modern Pandit, has lately, in conjunction with a few young men of the rising class, petitioned your Honorable Council to legislate on the subject of the Marriage of Hindu Widows, and that a bill relating to it has been brought in—think it necessary most respectfully to draw your attention to their prayers on the subject.

"1st. That the Marriage of Hindu Widows is prohibited in the Veda, the Smriti, the Puranas, and other Shastras.

"That the advocates of widow marriage, who maintain that it is authorized by the Hindu Law, and who have therefore petitioned your Honorable Council to legislate in its behalf, are, in their opinions and constructions, utterly at variance with the whole range of the Hindu legal compilers and commentators. For the texts pointed out by the former as sanctioning widow marriage, have invariably been explained and asserted by the latter to refer to betrothed girls, and to widows in the past yogas (ages). And in truth all the digests of the Hindu Law which have regulated Hindu manners, customs, and religious practices, from time immemorial, not only no where authorize widow marriage, but on the contrary expressly discountenance it. The following