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Women, however, do not possess any independence 4l
and they are protected in all stages of their lives. He declares,
‘A woman is never fit for independence,’ 42
and quotes a passage from the Veda in support of it: ‘The Veda
declares, "there fore women are considered to be destitute of
strength and of a portion " ‘. 43
But Colebrooke 44
has discussed the correctness of the text and has pronounced it as
confusing, and as not being original: for the manuscripts differ in
their wording. It was probably inserted on an analogy of a passage of
the Taittiriya Samhita 45
‘Tasmat Striyo, Nirindriya adayada api papat
puinsah Upasthitaram.’ This corresponds to the eighteenth verse of
ninth chapter of Manu Sanihita. Though this looks rather harsh, it has
a higher philosophical justification. As woman is meant to prolong the
race, she should not be left to the hard world to struggle she but
should be given protection in every possible way.
‘But women who strive to do what is agree- able to
their husbands’ are assured of the bliss of heaven 46,
and tiny violation of this duty has to be atoned for by a penance. The
punishments prescribed for the Sudras are most cruel; thus a Sudra has
to be burned in a fire of straw, for such offences. 47
While describing the customs of the South. he mentions among others, a
man marrying the daughter of a maternal uncle.
"We will explain those (peculiar) to the South:
they are, ‘to eat in the company of an uninitiated person, to eat in
the company of one’s wife, to eat stale food, to marry the daughter
of a maternal uncle or of a paternal aunt' ".48
Under certain conditions a man could abandon his wife and marry again.
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