Yajnavalkya-smriti (Vyavaharadhyaya)—Critical study
by Kalita Nabanita | 2017 | 87,413 words
This page relates ‘Chastity as a supreme virtue of woman’ of the study on the Vyavaharadhyaya of the Yajnavalkya-smriti: one of the most prominent Smritis dealing with Dharmashastra (ancient Indian science of law), dating to the 1st century B.C. The Yajnavalkyasmriti scientifically arranges its contents in three sections: Acara (proper conduct), Vyavahara (proper law) and Prayashcitta (expiation). Vyavahara deals with judicial procedure and legal system such as substantive law and procedural law.
Chapter 3.5d - Chastity as a supreme virtue of woman
Chastity has been considered the supreme virtue of woman in India since long. In the Yājñavalkyasmṛti, it may be noticed that position of a woman is sometimes determined by her chastity. Yājñavalkya lays down that the childless wives who are of good conduct should be maintained, but those who are unchaste and perverse are to be banished from the habitation.[1] Therefore, adultery is treated as a grave criminal offence in the social set-up of Yājñavalkya’s period.[2]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
aputrā yoṣitaścaiṣāṃ bhartavyāḥ sādhuvṛttayaḥ/ nirvāsyā vyabhicāriṇyaḥ pratikūtāstathaiva ca// Yājñavalkyasmṛti, 2.142
[2]:
Ibid., 2.283-294