Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/355

312 The veda says:—"As round one sacrificial post two cords are fastened, so one man may marry two wives; but, as one cord is not fastened round two sacrificial posts, so one woman cannot have two husbands."

The code of Manu says:—"Him to whom her father has given her or her brother with the paternal assent, let her obsequiously honor, while he lives; and when he dies, let her never neglect him."

"Let her emaciate her body, by living voluntarily on pure flowers, roots and fruit; but let her not, when her lord is deceased, even pronounce the name of another man.'

"Let her continue till death forgiving all injuries, performing harsh duties, avoiding every sensual pleasure, and cheerfully practising the incomparable rules of virtue, which have been followed by such women as were devoted to one only husband."

"And like those abstemious men, a virtuous wife ascends to heaven, though she have no child, if, after the decease of her lord, she devote herself to pious austerity."

"A woman, even if she has been married, may be given away to another with clothes and ornaments. This and similar customs are prohibited in the Kali Yug, because the Adi Purana says, that 'procreation of a son by a brother, the giving away of a married woman, and the like, are not to take place in the Kali Yug."

"Prohibitions in the Kali Yug:—The marriage of a widow the gift of a larger portion 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 Yug."

"The marriage of a widow, the gift of a larger portion to