O best of
Brahmanas, do as thou likest. I shall not be able to maintain thee as
before.' At these words of his wife, Dirghatamas said, 'I lay down from
this day as a rule that every woman shall have to adhere to one husband
for her life. Be the husband dead or alive, it shall not be lawful for a
woman to have connection with another. And she who may have such
connection shall certainly be regarded as fallen. A woman without husband
shall always be liable to be sinful. And even if she be wealthy she shall
not be able to enjoy that wealth truly. Calumny and evil report shall ever
dog her.' Hearing these words of her husband Pradweshi became very angry,
and commanded her sons, saying, 'Throw him into the waters of Ganga!' And
at the command of their mother, the wicked Gautama and his brothers, those
slaves of covetousness and folly, exclaiming, 'Indeed, why should we
support this old man?--'tied the Muni to a raft and committing him to the
mercy of the stream returned home without compunction. The blind old man
drifting along the stream on that raft, passed through the territories of
many kings. One day a king named Vali conversant with every duty went to
the Ganges to perform his ablutions. And as the monarch was thus engaged,
the raft to which the Rishi was tied, approached him. And as it came, the
king took the old man. The virtuous Vali, ever devoted to truth, then
learning who the man was that was thus saved by him, chose him for raising
up offspring.
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