The _Brahmachárí_ is of two kinds: one as already described, whom the Brahmans call Brahmachari, until the period of his becoming a householder and taking a wife; the second is he who in the course of this life never enters into the married state, pays no attention to worldly cares, and continues the devoted servant of his instructor, on whose death he pays the same attention to his survivors. If the disciple should happen to die in his master’s house or that of his successor, it is accounted far more meritorious than in any other place; and if his decease should not occur, he is carefully to worship the fire which is made for the purpose of the Hom, or “burnt-offering,” and diminishing every day the quantity of his food.
Having thus given some statements concerning the Brahmachárí, it now becomes proper to mention the various modes of contracting marriage among the Hindus: thus it is related in the first part of the _Mahábhárat_, that a woman who has lost her husband may lawfully take another; for when Parasu-Rama had exterminated the Chattris, their wives held intercourse with the Brahmans and bare them children. It is also permitted to a wife deprived of her husband, to attach herself to another; thus _Yojanagandhá_[100] was first the wife of _Paraśara_, by whom she had a son, the celebrated sage _Vyása_,[101] and she afterwards became the wife of a king named _Santana_.[102] In the same work it is also recorded, that a woman may, by her husband’s consent, maintain intercourse with another; thus, on the arrival of Raja Bali, a Brahman named _Tamma_, sent him his wife and obtained a son. In like manner, Raja _Pándu_, who abstained from all intercourse with woman, permitted his wife _Kuntí_[103] to keep company with others, and she, by force of his prayers, mixing with angels, had sons. In like manner it is permitted that the son be separated from the father, but remain with the mother, and that, on the decease of a brother, another brother by a different father but the same mother, may marry the widow of the deceased: thus _Vyása_, the son of _Yojangandha_ by _Párasaru_,[104] visited the wives of _Vichitra-Virya_, who was born of the same mother, Yojangandha, by king Santanu, and there was born to him _Dhritaráshtra_, Raja _Pándu_, and _Vidúra_. It is also allowed that several individuals of the same race and religion may among them espouse one wife: thus _Draupadí_, daughter of _Drúpada_, Rája of _Pánchála_,[105] was married to the five Pandava princes; and _Ahalyá_,[106] the daughter of _Gautama_, to seven persons; and the daughter of another holy person, was married to ten husbands. The Yezdanians ascribe the seclusion of women, and their not choosing husbands for themselves, to litigation, corruption, and the family perplexities. It is recorded also in the Mahábhárat, that in ancient times there was no such practice as the appropriation of husband and wife; every woman being allowed to cohabit with whomsoever she thought proper, until once the wife of a holy personage being in the society of another, Swétakéta, the holy man’s son, feeling indignant at such conduct, pronounced this imprecation: “Let the woman who approaches a stranger be regarded as a spirit of hell!” and at present the brute creation, which possess in common with us, immaterial souls, act according to the ancient law: many, also, of the northern nations follow the same practice. In the same work it is also stated, that the sage Vyása was born of the daughter of a fisherman, whom the sage Paraśara espoused, from which it follows that the issue of such a low connection is not to be held as a low or degraded character. Thus far has been extracted from the Mahábhárat.