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the subject of sale. What need then be said of one's own issue? With the wealth that is acquired by doing sinful deeds, no action |
leading to merit can be performed.'" |
SECTION XLVI |
"Bhishma said, They that are conversant with ancient history recite the following verse of Daksha, the son of Prachetas: That |
maiden, in respect of whom nothing is taken by her kinsmen in the form of dowry cannot be said to be sold.[293] Respect, kind |
treatment, and everything else that is agreeable, should all be given unto the maiden whose hand is taken in marriage. Her sire |
and brothers and father-in-law and husband's brothers should show her every respect and adorn her with ornaments, if they be |
desirous of reaping benefits, for such conduct on their part always leads to considerable happiness and advantage. If the wife |
does not like her husband or fails to gladden him, from such dislike and absence of joy, the husband can never have issue for |
increasing his race. Women, O king, should always be worshipped and treated with affection. There where women are treated |
with respect, the very deities are said to be filled with joy. There where women are not worshipped, all acts become fruitless. If |
the women of a family, in consequence of the treatment they receive, grieve and shed tears, that family soon becomes extinct. |
Those houses that are cursed by women meet with destruction and ruin as if scorched by some Atharvan rite. Such houses lose |
their splendour. Their growth and prosperity cease. O king, Mann, on the eve of his departure for Heaven, made over women to |
the care and protection of men, saying that they are weak, that they fall an easy prey to the seductive wiles of men,[294] |
disposed to accept the love that is offered them, and devoted to truth. There are others among them that are full of malice, |
covetous of honours, fierce in disposition, unlovable, and impervious to reason. Women, however, deserve to be honoured. Do |
ye men show them honour. The righteousness of men depends upon women. All pleasures and enjoyments also completely |
depend upon them. Do ye serve them and worship them. Do ye bend your wills before them. The begetting of offspring, the |
nursing of children already born, and the accomplishment of all acts necessary for the needs of society, behold, all these have |
women for their cause. By honouring women, ye are sure to attain to the fruition of all objects. In this connection a princess of |
the house of Janaka the ruler of the Videhas, sang a verse. It is this: Women have no sacrifices ordained for them. There are no |
Sraddhas which they are called upon to perform. They are not required to observe any facts. To serve their husbands with |
reverence and willing obedience is their only duty. Through the discharge of that duty they succeed in conquering heaven. In |
childhood, the sire protects her. The husband protects her in youth. When she becomes old, her sons, protect her. At no period |
of her life does woman deserve to be free. Deities of prosperity are women. The person that desire affluence and prosperity |
should honour them. By cherishing women, O Bharata, one cherishes the goddess of prosperity herself, and by afflicting her, |
one is said to afflict the goddess of prosperity.'" |
SECTION XLVII |
"Yudhishthira said, 'Thou art fully conversant with the ordinances of all the scriptures. Thou art the foremost of those that are |
acquainted with the duties of kings. Thou art celebrated over the whole world as a great dispeller of doubts. I have a doubt, do |
thou explain it to me, O grandsire! As regards this doubt that has arisen in my mind, I shall not ask any other person for its |
solution. It behoveth thee, O thou of mighty arms, to expound as to how a man should conduct himself who is desirous of |
treading along the path of duty and righteousness. It has been laid down, O grandsire, that a Brahmana can take four wives, |
viz., one that belongs to his own order, one that is a Kshatriya, one that is a Vaisya, and one that is a Sudra, if the Brahmana |
wishes to indulge in the desire of sexual intercourse. Tell me, O best of the Kurus, which amongst those sons deserves to |
inherit the father's wealth one after another? Who amongst them, O grandsire, shall take what share of the paternal wealth? I |
desire to hear this, viz., how the distribution has been ordained amongst them of the paternal property.' |
"Bhishma said, 'The Brahmana, the Kshatriya, and the Vaisya are regarded as the three regenerate orders. To wed in these three |
orders has been ordained to be the duty of the Brahmana, O Yudhishthira. Through erroneous judgment or cupidity or lust, O |
scorcher of foes, a Brahmana takes a Sudra wife. Such a wife, however, he is not competent to take according to the scriptures. |
A Brahmana, by taking a Sudra woman to his bed, attains to a low end in the next world. He should, having done such an act, |
undergo expiation according to the rites laid down in the scriptures. That expiation must be twice heavier or severer if in |
consequence of such an act, O Yudhishthira, the Brahmana gets offspring. I shall now tell thee, O Bharata, how the (paternal) |
wealth is to be distributed (among the children of the different spouses.) The son born of the Brahmana wife shall, in the first |
place, appropriate from his father's wealth a bull of good marks, and the best car or vehicle. What remains of the Brahmana's |
property, O Yudhishthira, after this should be divided into ten equal portions. The son by the Brahmana wife shall take four of |
such portions of the paternal wealth. The son that is born of the Kshatriya wife is, without doubt, possessed of the status of a |
Brahmana. In consequence, however, of the distinction attaching to his mother, he shall take three of the ten shares into which |
the property has been divided. The son that has been born of the wife belonging to the third order, viz., the woman of the |
Vaisya caste, by the Brahmana sire, shall take, O Yudhishthira, two of the three remaining shares of the father's property. It has |
been said that the son that has been begotten by the Brahmana sire upon the Sudra wife should not take any portion of the |
father's wealth, for he is not to be considered an heir. A little, however, of the paternal wealth should be given to the son of the |
Sudra wife, hence the one remaining share should be given to him out of compassion. Even this should be the order of the ten |
shares into which the Brahmana's wealth is to be divided. All the sons that are born of the same mother or of mothers of the |
same order, shall share equally the portion that is theirs. The son born of the Sudra wife should not be regarded as invested |
with the status of a Brahmana in consequence of his being unskilled (in the scriptures and the duties ordained for the |
Brahmana). Only those children that are born of wives belonging to the three higher orders should be regarded as invested with |
the status of Brahmanas. It has been said that there are only four orders there is no fifth that has been enumerated. The son by |
the Sudra wife shall take the tenth part of his sire's wealth (that remains after the allotment has been made to the others in the |
way spoken of). That share, however, he is to take only when his sire has given it to him. He shall not take it if his sire does not |
give it unto him. Some portion of the sire's wealth should without doubt, be given, O Bharata, to the son of the Sudra wife. |
Compassion is one of the highest virtues. It is through compassion that something is given to the son of the Sudra wife. |
Whatever be the object in respect of which compassion arises, as a cardinal virtue it is always productive of merit. Whether the |
sire happens to have children (by his spouses belonging to the other orders) or to have no children (by such spouses), unto the |
son by the Sudra wife, O Bharata, nothing more than a tenth part of the sire's wealth should be given. If a Brahmana happens to |
have more wealth than what is necessary for maintaining himself and his family for three years, he should with that wealth |
perform sacrifices. A Brahmana should never acquire wealth for nothing.[295] The highest sum that the husband should give |
unto the wife is three thousand coins (of the prevailing currency). The wealth that the husband gives unto the wife, the latter |
may spend or dispose of as she likes. Upon the death of the childless husband, the wife shall enjoy all his wealth. (She shall |
not, however, sell or otherwise dispose of any portion of it). The wife should never take (without her husband's knowledge) any |
portion of her husband's wealth. Whatever wealth, O Yudhishthira, the Brahmana wife may acquire by gift from her father, |
should be taken (after her death) by her daughter, for the daughter is like the son. The daughter, O king, has been ordained in |
the scriptures, to be equal to the son, O delighter of the Kurus. Even thus hath the law of inheritance been ordained, O bull of |
Bharata's race. Remembering these ordinances about the distribution and disposal of wealth, one should never acquire wealth |
uselessly.' |
"Yudhishthira said, 'If the son born of a Sudra woman by a Brahmana father has been declared in the scriptures to be disentitled |
to any wealth, by what exceptional rule then is a tenth part of the paternal property to be given to him? A son born of a |
Brahmana wife by a Brahmana is unquestionably a Brahmana. One born of a Kshatriya wife or of a Vaisya wife, by a |
Brahmana husband, is similarly invested with the status of a Brahmana. Why then, O best of kings, are such sons to share the |
paternal wealth unequally? All of them, thou hast said, are Brahmanas, having been born of mothers that belong to the three |
higher orders equally entitled to the name of regenerate.' |
"Bhishma said, 'O scorcher of foes, all spouses in this world are called by the name of Data. Although that name is applied to |
all, yet there is this great distinction to be observed. If, having married three wives belonging to the three other orders, a |
Brahmana takes a Brahmana wife the very last of all yet shall she be regarded as the first in rank among all the wives, and as |
deserving of the greatest respect. Indeed, among all the co-wives, she shall be the foremost in consideration. In her apartments |
should be kept all those articles that are necessary in view of the husband's baths, personal decorations, washing of teeth, and |
application of collyrium to the eyes. In her apartments should be kept the Havya and the Kavya and all else that the husband |
may require for the performance of his religious acts. If the Brahmana wife is in the house, no other wife is entitled to attend to |
these needs of the husband. Only the Brahmana wife, O Yudhishthira, should assist in these acts of the husband. The husband's |
food and drink and garlands and robes and ornaments, all these should be given by the Brahmana wife to the husband, for she |
is the foremost in rank and consideration among all the spouses of the husband. These are the ordinances of the scriptures as |
laid down by Manu, O delighter of the Kurus! Even this, O monarch, is seen to be the course of eternal usage. If a Brahmana, |
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