310 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



up. If [one man's] bull were to beget a hundred 

 calves on another man's cows, they would belong 

 to the owner of the cows. . . . Thus," he decides, 

 "men who have no marital property in women, but 

 sow their seed in the soil of others, benefit the owner 

 of the woman, but the giver of the seed reaps no 

 advantage." This is preliminary to a declaration of 

 the law applicable to women " in times of misfortune," 

 that is to say when there is no male offspring. In 

 spite of the taboo which hedges alike the wife of 

 an elder brother and the wife of a younger brother, the 

 breach of which would make both guilty parties 

 outcasts, "on failure of issue [by her husband] a 

 woman who has been authorised, may obtain [in the] 

 proper [manner prescribed], the desired offspring 

 by [cohabitation with] a brother-in-law or [with some 

 other] sapinda " [of the husband]. She may, it seems, 

 be authorised for this purpose by her husband or after 

 his death by his relatives ; but when once the object 

 is accomplished cohabitation must cease. However, 

 if the son born be not fit. to offer the Sraddhas, 

 a second may be begotten. A son so begotten would 

 be deemed the son of the husband, whether such 

 husband was in fact living or dead at the time of his 

 procreation. 1 



This was the law throughout Vedic times. There 

 is reason to think indeed that as formulated by 

 Manu it limited the pre-existing custom. A sapinda 

 is a kinsman within six degrees, that is to say, a 

 descendant of the same great-grandfather. But it is 

 noteworthy in all the early examples of the Niyoga, as 

 the custom of authorisation by the husband was called, 

 1 Sacred Books, xxv. 327-338; cf. ii. 267, 302, 303. 



