Widow remarriage

[K.N.RAMESH]

Dear all, 

1) I am looking for the exact translations of the sanskrit portions mentioned here:

Rigveda (10.40.5.) says, 

kuhasviddOshA kuhavastOrashvinA kuhAbhishittvam karatah kuhOshatuhu. 
kO vAm shayutrA vidhavEda dEvara maryam na yOshA krNitE saadastha Aa. 

As per SayaNa bhaashya a widow can take another husband after her husband's death. 
The man who marries a widow is not considered inferior to other men. Widow marriage is not forbidden. 

The first mantra of the third sookta of the fourteenth kaanda of Atharva Veda lays down that a woman whose husband dies, should accept another person who can provide food, clothes and shelter and can also give good children. 

Manusmriti also provides a few slokas giving the same view. 

"yaa patyaavaa parityaktaa vidhavaa vaa svayEchchayaa, 
utpaadayEta punarbhootvaa sa sounarbhava uchyatE, 
saa chEdakshata yOsaaha syaata gata pattyaagataapi vaa, 
pounrbhavEna bhartyaa saa punaha samskaaramarhati." 

It means, if the lady is either rejected by her husband or if he is dead, she should marry again. 

Kaatyaayana smriti says, "varayitaa tu yah kaschit praNashyEt purushOyadaa. 
rutvaagamaam streenateetya kanyaanyam varayEdvaram." 
That means the widow should marry three months after her husband's death. 

Prajaapati smriti also provides for the remarriage of young widows or for those ladies who are rejected by their husbands. 

"yadisaa baalavidhavaa balaata tyaktaathavaa kvachit". 

Mahabharata mentions that even when there is a doubt about the existence of the husband, his wife can remarry. 
"Aasthhaasyati punarbhymee damayantee svayamvaram, 
tatra gachchanti raajaanO raajaputraascha sarvashaha." 
-mahabharatha, vanaparva,ch.70, shloka24. 
more clearly, 
"sooryOdayE dviteeyam saabhartaaram varayishyati, 
na hi sa jnaanayitE veerO nalO jeevati vaa na raa". 
-mahabharata vanaparva, ch.70. sloka 26. 

( Damayanti is going to marry the next morning. The doubt about the powerful Nala's existence is the reason for this decision.). 
One can find similar views in Bheeshma parva chapters 90 and 91 also. 

A princess who is widowed 20 times marries 21 times as mentioned in Padmapuraana. 

Because of the efforts of the great social reformers like Eshvar chandra vidyasagar, Dr. Tejbhahadur saproo and others, it has been accepted legally, the practice is yet take deep roots in India. 

 2) If this is the case, then which sastra forbids from remarriage of widows? After all we were following this for quite long and that should be based on some sastra/smruti?

3) Which smruthi mentions about  "Sati" system?

Dhanyavaadah

namO namah

Ramesh

[Arvind_Kolhatkar]

Ramesh,

Could you supply the exact references to the texts that you have extracted above, so that we can, for ourselves, read them  in their proper context?  It will also help us read the texts better if they are in front of us in Devanagari.  Your Romanized Sanskrit is not only tedious to read, but apparently is full of errors as the meter in many places does not agree with the words.

Your further doubt is why is widow remarriage has not become fully acceptable despite the above text, which - presumably - allow it.  My short answer would be the oft-quoted maxim शास्त्राद् रूढिर्बलीयसी, accepted convention trumps over canonical precepts.  It is also said श्रुतिर्विभिन्ना स्मृतयश्च भिन्ना नैको मुनिर्यस्य वच: प्रमाणम्। धर्मस्य तत्त्वं निहितं गुहायां महाजनो येन गत: स पन्था:।, faced with innumerable rules which do not seem to agree with each other, the common man looks to the society leaders to find the correct path.  Not everyone goes back to the first principles, the Vedas and the Upanishads, to order his daily life.  People usually take their cue from what they observe around themselves.  

The confined life of a woman in the male-dominated India society, of which there are countless evidences in our old literature, expected the woman to be the epitome of all virtue and the upholder of the family honor.  Love and respect for her husband was expected of her.  This, when stretched beyond limit, easily leads into requiring her to respect and cherish her dead husband's memory.  Naturally, no remarriage for her after her husband dies!  At the extreme, the convention also required her to follow her dead husband into the other world, though I believe that even in India of the 18th and 19th century, actual instances of Sati were rare.  Sati was by no means a generally followed practice.

This, IMHO. is what happened with regard to widow remarriage.

(I would be particularly interested in looking more closely at the Manusmriti verses, cited by you.  We know that among all such similar texts, Manusmriti attracts the most flak for social conservatism.)

Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, June 18, 2014.

[Taff Rivers]

==>

1) I am looking for the exact translations of the sanskrit portions mentioned here:

Rigveda (10.40.5.) says, 

==>

This is not exactly an original query!

It is taken verbatim from a Yahoo Forum circa 2011.

It even answers its own question - Rig Veda 10.40.5, complete with commentary is not hard to find.

  Taff Rivers

[Hnbhat B.R.]

Exactly it is just retaken to find answers from the member, without quoting the answer there in the other group. 

[knr]

 As Taff & Bhat sir has pointed out these have been dug out from yahoo groups.

I shall go with Arvind Kolhatkar Mahodaya's view.

I went through Manu smriti fastly from 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7189037/Manu-Smriti-Sanskrit-Text-With-English-Translation

and could only find 9.65 which says 

नउद्वाहिके षु मन्त्रेषु नियोग: कीर्त्यते क्वचित् | न विवाहविधाव् उं विधवावेदनम् पुन: ||

In the sacred texts which refer to marriage the appointment (of widows) is nowhere mentioned, nor is there-marriage of widows prescribed in the rules concerning marriage.

I could not locate the verses cited. 

Thanks a lot Arvind Kolhatkar Mahoday.

Pranaams