130 ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF 



heavy fines ; after levying which the younger brother may keep, if he will, 

 the defiled wife whom the elder has put away. 



To have commerce after his death, with an elder brother's wife is no 

 crime whatever.* In Agamya-gavan, from the father seven steps, and from 

 the mother five grades, are forbidden. If any marry within them, the 

 man's and the woman's father, and the go-between, all are fined, and the 

 woman must be put away. 



If any Newdr wife, in her husband's life and whilst he is within N^pal, 

 go astray, she and the adulterer are fined sixty rupees ; after which, the 

 woman may go with either her husband, or the adulterer, as she pleases. 

 If she prefers her husband (he willing) then the court shall take pasu pdn 

 from him ; and if she go with the other, then he shall have a second fine 

 levied on him and take her. 



If a Neivdr go to Bhote, and his wife remaining at his house or at the 

 house of her father, should elope ; or, if her protectors (father, uncle, bro- 

 ther, &c.) should resolve to give her in marriage to another, her husband 

 being (as before) in Bhote, in either case the wife must perform " pdchuM' 

 that is, she must go to the Mul Sahhd of the city she belongs to ( Kalhman- 

 du, or Bhatgaon or Patau), and present two supdris and one mohr (six 

 and half annas) to the judge ;t when the judge sends the two supdris by 

 the hands of a Mahan to the house of her husband. The Mahan having 

 reached the house says to the relatives of the husband, " this is the supdri of 

 him who is gone to Bhote. His wife is divorced from him, and I therefore 

 return you the instrument of the marriage contract (i.e. the supdri. y Then 



* This seems an interesting relic of the old customary law of India, requiring or permit- 

 ting a younger, " to raise up seed" to an elder deceased brother, by marriage of the widow : 

 such a custom still prevails in Orissa. 



The custom itself would appear to be a relic of the still older and barbarous usage, which 

 made the wife of one common to all the brothers, an usage which I have heard of doubtfully 

 as prevailing in some parts of India, but which is unquestionably prevalent in Bhote. — 



t Now, under the Gorkhas, a Newar wife cannot get free without paying two, four, or six, 

 or more up to twenty rupees, according to her means.— H. 



