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370
Then marriages only
Pratiloma marriages
caste lower than that of its father.
within one's own caste were praised.
never received any sanction and were always condemned,
There were no child marriages in the Mah膩bh膩rata
age also. The baneful custom originated with the
Dharma艣膩stras. Like the Sutras the Mahabharata was
also in favour of the remarriage of child widows.
Polygamy was, as ever, in vogue in those days.
for a childless wido
Reference must also be made here to the custom of
Niyoga which prevailed in ancient India in common with
similar customs among ancient people. The practice was
to have intercourse with the brother or
any near kinsman of her deceased husband to raise up issue
to him, the son so born being called K峁�etraja. The practice
of Niyoga arose probably owing to the desire to have
male issue to the deceased to add to the number of the
constituents of any society, as in ancient times the strength
of a society depended on its number. The restrictions were
that only childless widows or childless women whose
husbands were incapable for some reason to beget sons.
could take advantage of the practice if permitted by their
husbands or near relatives. The person to be selected
for Niyoga was to be the brother of the husband or any
other near relative or an honoured sage, so that savarna
and strong and capable progeny was ensured; and as the
begetting of a son was the main purpose of the practice,
the sanction terminated as soon as a son was born. All
the same, the practice of Niyoga was an exceptional one
and did not survive long. It fell into disuse later on
when there was growth of population and countries were
thickly populated, and the system (of Niyoga) conflicted
with the ideas of chastity (pativratya) of women which
arose among the Aryans in India. In the Bh膩rata age, we
find that P膩峁囜笉u and Dh峁泃ar膩峁ａ弓ra, as well
Pandu Dh峁泃ar膩峁ａ弓ra, as well
as the five
P膩峁囜笉avas were born of Niyoga. There are no instances of
Niyoga in later times, and the system was condemned by
the Dharma艣膩stras as improper and
as improper and
sinful in the
Kali age."
As regards marriage in the Buddhist period, we find
that usually there were three forms of marriage, viz., (1)
1 Cf. Vaidya, Upasa峁僪膩ra, 204-206. It is interesting to note in this
connection that Kautilya allows Niyoga even in the case of Brahmanas, III. 6
(p. 163) cf. also I. 17 (p. 35). Contra, Manu, IX, 57-68.