the lips of a Soudra, or who has a child by her, there is no expiation declared by the law."[1] He descends to the infernal abode, and his son loses caste. As for the son of a Brahmanic woman and a Soudra, he is a Tchandala, the vilest of mortals.[2] The young Brahmin, after having received the authorisation of his spiritual director, and having purified himself by a bath, must marry a woman of his own class, who is well made, who has a fine down over her body, fine hair, small teeth, limbs of a charming sweetness, and the graceful movement of a swan or a young elephant.[3] But, however the wife may be chosen, she is held in a state of servile submission. "A wife," says the Code, "can never be set free from the authority of her husband; neither by sale nor by desertion." "Once only a young girl is given in marriage; once only the father says, I give her."[4]
Taken as a whole, these antique precepts are still observed in India. In general, monogamy prevails, but the married woman is none the less kept in a state of abject subjection. It is shameful, says Somerset, for a virtuous woman to know how to read and dance; these futile accomplishments are left to the bayadere. "Servant, slave," are the habitual appellations used by the husband in addressing his wife, who replies by saying "Master, lord," who must take care not to call her husband by his name,[5] and has not the right to sit at his table.[6] It is the parents who negotiate the marriage, without any regard to the tastes of the future husband and wife, and thinking only of rank and fortune.[7] A daughter is always married, or rather sold, in infancy, often to a sexagenarian Brahmin, and before she is of age to manifest any preference.[8]
These accounts, which are as authentic as possible, enable us to estimate the Hindoo marriage. However monogamic it may generally be, it is very inferior from a moral point of view. The tyrannical right left to the husband, his unlimited power, the servitude of the wife,
