Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/354

Rh extracts from the digests in question, are quoted for your information.

"Moreover the verses of Devala, who sanctions the re-marriage of women, declaring that a married woman whose husband has left her, shall wait for eight years, and after that take another husband; and that she may do the same under the circumstances specified therein, refer to former yogas, as also does the appointment of a widow to a brother or some other near kinsman for the purpose of raising issue."

"But 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."

"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 in any part of this code to a virtuous woman."

"Such a commission to a brother or other near kinsman is no where mentioned in the nuptial texts of the Veda; nor is the marriage of a widow even named in the laws concerning marriage."

"From this day I enact that a woman have only one husband as long as she lives, and whether he be alive or dead, if she go to another man, she shall doubtless be degraded."

"The marriage of a widow, a larger allotment to the eldest brother, the sacrifice of a bull, the appointment of a man to beget a son on the widow of his brother, and the carrying of a water pot as the token of an ascetic, these five are prohibited in the Kali Yoga, or the fourth age."