DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 657
prince was allowed to marry more than one wife. We find the rulers disregarding the customs, traditions, usages and the lofty ideals—ideals
regarded as sublime—on which stood the structure of our society, but I would like to cite before you an example set forth by one who is
considered as an incarnation of God and who has placed an ideal before us. After looking through the great epic written by Valmiki— the epic which has safeguarded our Indian culture and which has sustained our
culture for the last so many centuries—it appears that when King Ramchandra sat for the performance of Ashvamedha Yagna and when
the priests and elderly persons told him that the Yagna (oblation) cannot be perfected in the absence of a wife, even at that moment he performed the ceremony by installing a gold idol of Sita and did not
have recourse to a second marriage. This ideal lies before us and if we scan through our classical epic, we shall have glimpes of this at
every place. During the times when Lord Rama lived in the forests and when Shurpnakha implored him for marriage, Lakshman had told her that Ramchandra was a prince of Ayodhya and was likely to become
the ruler of that kingdom and that be was even in a position to marry; but the latter was already a married man and could not thus re-marry.
Even at that time the utterances which our Poet Laureate had attributed to Lord Rama establishes the same very ideal that the institution of polygamy was not looked upon favourably during those
days. I do not understand how the restriction placed thereon in this Bill is opposed to religious doctrines. On the contrary I think that if
such actions were to be encouraged then they would surely cause the destruction of the high ideals of our Indian culture and society. I believe this to be an ideal for every Hindu who professes himself to
be a follower of Hindu religion and a supporter of Indian culture. It is a great injustice done to woman that the husband is allowed to enter
into matrimony once, twice, thrice or even four times in the very life time of the legally wedded wife. For a woman this custom is horribly painful and demands utmost sympathy. It is another thing
that since centuries restrictions have been imposed on our women folk and the women of this country have more or less been confined within
the four walls of the house. Restrictions have been imposed on their social, mental and economic rights. Their tears dry up in their eyes only and are not even allowed to trickle down. But our poets, writers
and authors have given a very vivid description of this colossal suffering and tribulations that the women have to endure. For a woman