Niyoga: The hidden divinity
Niyoga is a technical term in the Dharmashastra which denotes an option where a widow or the wife of an impotent man was temporarily made to procreate with a designated closely related man in order to procure a son who would be regarded as the son of the legal husband.
Early Indian literature prescribes procreation as the most important religious and social duty of men. Procreation of a ‘son’ seems to have been extremely important due to the emergence of private property and patriarchy. Sons were looked upon as promoters of lineage, inheritors of property, and performers of ancestral rites thus it was extremely essential to give birth to a son.
I have always wondered how a patriarchal society would allow a practice like Niyoga that allows a woman to temporarily escape the ‘pativrata’ status. I came to understand that Niyoga was a practice that did not provide women with relief but rather exploited and controlled women’s sexuality in order to support the existent patriarchal institutions. The Manu Smriti informs us that women were created to bear children and this clearly indicates that women did not have any choice of their own.
Ancient Indian literature has given numerous clues to the existence of this practice and seems to have been considered a legitimate method of heirship. The Mahabharata gives us information about a range of Niyoga unions. Satyavati pushes her widowed daughter-in-law’s Ambika and Ambalika to enter into a relationship with her other son, Ved Vyasa, and produce sons. This results in the birth of Dhritarashtra, Pandu. In another case, Kunti invokes various gods resulting in the birth of the Pandavas. There are many more instances that indicate the prevalence of Niyoga within the Mahabharata.
It is interesting how most of the instances that indicate Niyoga within the Mahabharata are labeled as “divine”. The children produced via this process are regarded as the product of divine intervention and not procreation it is only when we examine the practicality of these divine deeds that we understand that this implies Niyoga. This, in my opinion, is a result of the attempt to uphold the pativrata status of the women and maintain their so-called ‘purity’.
The Manu Smriti debates about the relevance of Niyoga. The arguments presented are contradictory at times and this indicates a change in the perception of Niyoga with time. There is a possibility that the labeling of the practice as divine within the epic is a result of this changed perception and increased importance attached to the pativrata status and the idea of purity of a woman. Women came to be seen more and more as the private property of men which resulted in constructs like purity and virginity.
Thus, it can be said that both the practice of Niyoga and the denial of it is a result of changing patrilocal values and not the presence or absence of it.
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