Shvetaketu Establishes the Law of Marital Fidelity
In an ancient time of different customs, the young sage Shvetaketu watches a Brahmana take his mother by the hand to lead her away. His father Uddalaka explains this is the eternal, accepted practice. Enraged, Shvetaketu rejects this animal-like dharma and forcibly establishes a new law of marital fidelity for humans.
The custom was ancient and, to some, natural. Women of all varnas (social orders) went uncovered on earth. They were independent. From maidenhood, they were not faithful to any single husband. This was not considered a sin. It was, as the sage Uddalaka explained, the eternal practice. All beings were established in their own varnas, like cattle.
His son was named Shvetaketu, a hermit and a sage in his own right.
One day, in the presence of Shvetaketu’s father, a Brahmana came to their hermitage. The man walked up to Shvetaketu’s mother, grasped her hand, and said, “Let us go.”
Shvetaketu watched. He saw his mother being taken away, as if forcibly. A wave of anger and indignation rose in him.
Uddalaka saw his son’s rage. He said, “O son! Do not be angry. This is the eternal practice. Women of all varnas are uncovered on earth. All beings are established in their own varnas, like cattle.” He was describing the world as it was, a dharma of free movement, without the concept of exclusive possession or marital fidelity.
Shvetaketu, the rishi’s son, did not accept this dharma.
He looked at the practice his father called eternal and saw not sacred law, but the behavior of animals. In that moment of anger, he decided to change the world. He established a new rule for men and women on earth. This rule, he declared, was for humans, not for beasts.
His decree was severe and absolute. “From that day onwards,” he proclaimed, “a woman who is not faithful to her husband will commit a sin that is equal to that of foeticide and be miserable.” He extended the law to men as well. “He who seduces a virgin, one who follows brahmacharya (celibacy), or a wife who is devoted to her husband will also commit a sin on earth.”
But his new law had another clause, one that would echo through the ages in royal chambers and desperate pleas. “A wife who is appointed by her husband to conceive a son, but refuses to do so, will also commit the same sin.”
Thus, in a fit of anger at the sight of his mother being led away, Shvetaketu forcibly established the practice of dharma that governed the present age — a world of strict marital bonds, terrible sins for their violation, and a specific, pressing duty for wives whose husbands could not father children themselves.