good as a widow. If I have children by this marriage, my family will be preserved from extinction: I am, moreover, under an obligation to marry: if I do not do so the girl's father will lose caste, for they have no other family they can marry her into.
Bakreswar.-- That is indeed true: do you suppose that the master has entered upon a matter of this importance without taking everything into consideration? I know no one of a better understanding.
Bancharam.-- We are Kulins: we must maintain the traditions of our family at any cost, and where wealth is a recommendation as well, why, there is nothing more to be said!
Becharam.-- Confound your family traditions and bad luck to your wealth! Alas, how many persons have combined to overthrow one house! What do you say, friend Beni?
Beni.-- What shall I say? our remonstrances are but as idle words, as the tears of one weeping in a wilderness. But really this matter is a cause of great grief to me. To marry again when you already have one wife, is a grievous sin: no man who wished to maintain his virtue could ever do such a thing. There may be a Shástra of an opposite opinion, it is true; but there is never any necessity for following it: that such a Shástra is not a genuine one there can be no reasonable doubt, and should it be taken as a guide in actual practice, the bonds of marriage would thereby become much weakened. The feelings of the wife towards her husband cannot remain as before, and the feelings of the husband towards his wife will also be constantly changing. If such a calamity as this befalls a family, it cannot possibly prosper or be happy. If there is such a rule in the Shástras, that rule should not be regarded as binding. Be that as it may, it is very base of Baburam
