Verse 9.97

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

कन्यायां दत्तशुल्कायां म्रियेत यदि शुल्कदः ।
देवराय प्रदातव्या यदि कन्याऽनुमन्यते ॥ ९७ ॥

kanyāyāṃ dattaśulkāyāṃ mriyeta yadi śulkadaḥ |
devarāya pradātavyā yadi kanyā'numanyate || 97 ||

After the nuptial fee for a girl has been paid, if the man who paid the fee dies, the girl should be given to the younger brother-in-law, in case she consents.—(97)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

When the nuptial fee has been received by her father and other relations, but she has not been given away,—only the verbal betrothal having been done,—if, in the interval, the giver of the foe happen to die, then there arises the doubt, as to whether she, in the manner of other goods, shall revert to the younger brother-in-law, or to all brothers, as in the ease of Yudhiṣṭhira and others, or in the absence of brothers, to ‘Sapiṇḍa’ relations,—the text lays down the rule that ‘she should he given to the younger brother-in-law’;—not either to all the brothers of her husband, or to all his ‘Sapiṇḍa’ relations,—but to his younger brother only. But hero also, only if the girl consents.

“In the event of the girl not consenting, what shall become of the nuptial fee?”

If the girl desires to take to life-long celibacy, then the fee shall remain with the members of her father’s family; but if she seeks for another husband, then the fee shall be refunded out of the fee received from this second man.—(97)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Madanapārijāta (p. 153);—in Nirṇayasindhu (p. 227);—in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 739);—in Saṃskāramayūkha (p. 105), which explains the meaning to be that ‘if the girl agrees she may be given to the younger brother, but if she prefers to be given to some one else, she should be given to this latter’—in Puruṣārthacintāmaṇi (p. 454);—in Vyavahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (p. 530);—in Gadādharapaddhati (Kāla, p. 227);—and in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 219).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(See under 47, 69 and 71.)

Vaśiṣṭha (17-72).—‘If the betrothed of a maiden die after she has been promised to him verbally and by a libation of water,—but before she was married to him with the sacred texts,—she belongs to her father.’

Kātyāyana (Vīramitrodaya-Saṃskāra, 739).—‘If a man should die or become lost, after betrothal, the girl shall wait for three menstrual periods and then marry another person. If the betrothed should go away after having paid the nuptial fee and the girl’s dowry, the girl shall be kept unmarried for one year, after which she should be given away in the proper form to another man.’