Widows under Hindu Law

"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 DharmaÔsastra 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 DharmaÔsastra tradition widely opposed the practice of widow remarriage from its inception and support for widow remarriage always