THE WOMAN AND THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 433
made her an offering [1] as he did to the others. Not only the king elect did homage to the Queen, he worshipped his other wives of lower castes [2] . In the same way the King offers salutation after the coronation ceremony to the, ladies of the chiefs of the shremes (guides [3] ).
In the days of Kautilya women [4] were deemed to have attained their age of majority at 12 and men at 16. The age of majority was in all probability the age of marriage. That the marriages were post puberty marriages is clear from Baudhayanas’ Grihya Sutras [5] where an expiatory ceremony is specially prescribed in the case of a bride passing her menses on the occasion of her marriage.
In Kautilya there is no law as to age of consent. That is because marriages were post puberty marriages and Kautilya is more concerned with cases in which a bride or a bridegroom is married without disclosing the fact of his or her having had sexual intercouse before marriage with another person or maiden in menses having had sexual intercouse. In the former case Kautilya says [6] :
“Any person who has given a girl in marriage without announcing her guilt of having laid with another shall not only be punished with a fine but also be made to return the Sulka and Stridhana. Any person receiving a girl in marriage without announcing the blemishes of the bridegroom shall not only pay double the above fine, but also forfeit the Sulka and Stridhana (he paid for the bride). In regard to the latter case the rule in Kautilya [7] is:
“It is no offence for a man of equal caste and rank to have connection with a maiden who has been unmarried three years after her first menses. Nor is it an offence for a man, even of different caste, to have connection with a maiden who has spent more than three years after her first menses and has no jewellery on her person.”
Unlike Manu Kautilya’s idea is monogamy. Man can marry more than one wife only under certain conditions. They are given by Kautilya in the following terms [1] :
“If a woman either brings forth no (live) children, or has no male issue, or is barren, her husband shall wait for eight years (before marrying another). If she bears only a dead child, he has to wait for ten years. If she brings forth only females, he has to wait for twelve
1 Jaiswal: Indian Polity, Part II, p. 16.
2 Ibid, Part II, p. 17.
3 Ibid, p. 82.
4 Sham Shastri, Kautilya’s Arthashastra, p. 175.
5 Baudhyayana, I. 7. 22.
6 Sham Shastri, Kautilya’s Arthashastra, p. 222.
7 Ibid, p. 259.