Widows under Hindu Law

著者

• Brick, David J.

書誌事項

Widows under Hindu Law

David Brick

（Rocher Indology series）

Oxford University Press, c2023

• : hardback

注記

Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]-301) and index

Summary:"This chapter deals with two conceptually distinct, yet related legal issues concerning widows. The first of these is widow remarriage; the second is niyoga, which is the Sanskrit term for the specific version of levirate practiced in classical India. The reason that these two issues jointly comprise the focus of a single chapter of this book is that, despite the effort of the Hindu legal tradition to dissociate them, they are closely related. The reason that these two issues comprise the focus of the first chapter is that niyoga in particular is the first widow-related issue to become the subject of debate within Dharmaśāstra and, thus, the first such issue where one can see a major shift in Brahmanical opinion over time, specifically a shift from general acceptance to universal rejection. By contrast, the Dharmaśāstra tradition widely opposed the practice of widow remarriage from its inception and support for widow remarriage always constituted a minority position"-- Provided by publisher

内容説明・目次

内容説明

During British colonial rule in India, the treatment of high-caste Hindu widows became the subject of great controversy. Such women were not permitted to remarry and were offered two options: a life of seclusion and rigorous asceticism or death on the funeral pyre of a deceased husband. Was this a modern development, or did it date from the classical period? In this book, David Brick offers an exhaustive history of the treatment and status of widows under classical Hindu law, or Dharmasastra as it is called in Sanskrit, which spanned approximately the third century BCE to the eighteenth-century CE. Under Dharmasastra, Hindu jurists treated at length and at times hotly debated four widow-related issues: widow remarriage and levirate, a widow's right to inherit her husband's estate, widow-asceticism, and sati. Each of the book's chapters examine these issues in depth, concluding with an appendix that addresses a widow's right to adopt a son-a fifth widow-related issue that became the topic of discussion in late Dharmasastra works and was a significant point of legal contentions during the colonial period. When read critically and historically, works of Dharmasastra provide a long and detailed record of the prevailing legal and social norms of high-caste Hindu society. Widows Under Hindu Law uses lengthy English translations of important passages from Hindu legal texts to present a largescale narrative of the treatment of widows under the Hindu legal tradition. This is an open access title. It is available to read and download as a free PDF version on the Oxford Academic platform. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International licence.

目次

Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1: Widow Remarriage and Niyoga Chapter 2: Widows' Rights of Inheritance Chapter 3: Widow-Asceticism Chapter 4: Sati Summary Appendix: A Widow's Right to Adopt Bibliography

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詳細情報

• NII書誌ID(NCID): BD05157231
• ISBN:
  • 9780197664544
• LCCN: 2022044083
• 出版国コード: us
• タイトル言語コード: eng
• 本文言語コード: eng
• 出版地: New York, NY
• ページ数/冊数: x, 309 p.
• 大きさ: 25 cm
• 分類:
  • LCC : KNS550
  • DC23 : 346.5401/3082
• 件名:
  • LCSH : Widows (Hindu law)
• 親書誌ID:
  • BD05157027