Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 384

DUTIES OF A FAITHFUL WIFE
344
conduct which are prescribed for the latter in the Padma-
purana, one of their most valued books
rules which I will
translate literally.
They are reputed to be the work of
:
the famous penitent Vasishta, who recommends their
observance by every faithful wife. I cannot say that I
altogether approve of them
some of them appear to me
absurd others there are which, from a social point of
view, are harmful
all of them evidently have for their
object the reduction of this interesting
better half
of
the human race to the lowest state of subjection. It is
not to be wondered at, therefore, if we find many foolish
examples of Hindu superstition, which is a necessary
element in every institution of the country. Order and
continuity are not so conspicuous as one might desire
in the ideas of the great penitent Vasishta
but I give
a passage closely following the original, as a specimen of
the style of writing that prevails among the Hindus
Give ear to me attentively, great King of Dilipa
I will
expound to thee how a wife attached to her husband and
devoted to her duties ought to behave.
There is no other god on earth for a woman than her
husband. The most excellent of all the good works that
she can do is to seek to please him by manifesting perfect
obedience to him. Therein should lie her sole rule of
;
;
;
'
'
;
:
1
!
*
life.
Be her husband deformed, aged, infirm, offensive in
let him also be choleric, debauched, immoral,
a drunkard, a gambler let him frequent places of ill-
repute, live in open sin with other women, have no affec-
tion whatever for his home
let him rave like a lunatic
let him live without honour
let him be blind, deaf, dumb,
or crippled
in a word, let his defects be what they may,
let his wickedness be what it may, a wife should always
look upon him as her god, should lavish on him all her
attention and care, paying no heed whatsoever to his
character and giving him no cause whatsoever for dis-
'
his
manners
;
;
;
;
;
;
pleasure.
A woman
made
obey at every stage
of her exist-
to her father and mother she
owes submission as wife, to her husband, to her father-
in-law, and to her mother-in-law
as widow, to her sons;
*
ence.
is
As daughter,
to
it
is
;
;