Shvetaketu and the origin of marriage fidelity

Classical

The boy who invented marriage law in the epic is the student of 'tat tvam asi' in the Upanishad (the phrase is not on the page I read).

In the Mahabharata Shvetaketu sees a Brahmin take his mother's hand in front of his father Uddalaka, becomes angry, and establishes the rule that a wife stays loyal to one husband. Uddalaka says the earlier custom was ancient. The same Shvetaketu appears in the Chandogya (5.3 and the sixth prapathaka), Brihadaranyaka and Kausitaki Upanishads.

Who: Shvetaketu, Uddalaka

Bound to

Ashtavakra: cursed in the womb trivia-about

Nachiketa and Yama mirror

The divine births of the Pāṇḍavas mirror

Kuntī's careless command and the five-fold marriage mirror

Where this comes from

vulgate (Ganguli) · Ganguli translation of the Mahabharata (read via Ibiblio SriPedia mirror) Ganguli, Adi Parva, Section CXXII
commentary · Wikipedia: Shvetaketu

See it on the tree · All stories

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