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Aryavarta lies to the east of the region which the
river Saraswati disappears, to the west of the Black forest, to the
north of the Paripatra Mountains, to the south of the Himalayas.
According to others it lies to the south of the Himalayas and to the
north of the Vindhya ranges, being limited east and west by the two
oceans. Some declare the country of the Aryas to be situated between
the rivers Ganga and Yamuna.
Acts productive of spiritual merit and customs, which
are approved of in that country must be everywhere acknowledged as
authoritative. In the absence of the rules of the revealed texts,
peculiar laws of countries, castes and families, have to be foIlowed.106
He prescribes this on the strength of Manu’s authority. In these
general rules he permits a Prahmana to marry three wives, a Kshatriya
to marry two, a Vaisya to marry one. 107
According to some teachers the 'twice-born‘ men
could marry a Sudra but without the recitation of Vedic texts. 108
But in the next verse Vasishtha records his disapproval of the custom;
109
for degradation of the family and loss of heaven after death are the
consequences of such marriages. 110
He like Apastamba, recognises six kinds of marriage rites as legal, 111
but rejects some of the old names and defines them differently.
‘There are six marriage-rites, viz., that of
Brahmans (Brahma), that of the gods (Daiva) that of the Rishis
(Arsha), that of the Gandharvas (Gandharva), that of the Kshatriya
(Kshatra) and that of men (Manusha) 112.
He further elucidates them:-
If a father, pouring out a libation of water, gives
his daughter to a suitor, that is called the Brahma-rite. If the
father gives his daughter, decking her with ornaments, to an
officiating priest, whilst a sacrifice is being performed, that is
called the Daiva rite. And if the father gives his daughter for a cow
and a bull, that is called the Arsha-arite. If a lover takes a loving
female of equal caste, that is called the Gandharva rite If they
forcibly abduct a damsel, destroying her relatives by strength arms,
that is called the Kshatra-rite.’
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