THE RISE . . . . . . . . . FOR IT ? 125
For Manu does not prevent a man from giving up his wife. Indeed he not only allows him to abandon his wife but he also permits him to sell her. But what he does is to prevent the wife from becoming free. See what Manu says :—
IX. 46. Neither by sale nor by repudiation is a wife released from her husband.
The meaning is that a wife, sold or repudiated by her husband, can never become the legitimate wife of another who may have bought or received her after she was repudiated. If this is not monstrous, nothing can be. But Manu was not worried by considerations of justice or injustice in framing his law. He wanted to deprive women of the freedom they had under the Buddhistic regime. Manu was outraged by licence and in putting a stop to it he deprived her of her liberty.
A wife was reduced by Manu to a level of a slave in the matter of property.
IX. 416. A wife, a son and a slave, these three are declared to have no property; the wealth which they earn is (acquired) for him to whom they belong.
When she becomes a widow Manu allows her maintenance, if her husband was joint, and a widow’s estate in the property of her husband, if she was separate from his family. But Manu never allows her to have any domination over property.
A woman under the laws of Manu is subject to corporal punishment and Manu allows the husband the right to beat his wife.
VIII. 299. A wife, a son, a slave, a pupil, and a younger brother of the full blood, who have committed faults, may be beaten with a rope or a split bamboo.