Niyoga

Niyoga (Sanskrit: नियोग) was a Hindu practice, primarily followed during the ancient period, in the Indian subcontinent. Niyoga permitted widows or wives who had no child by their husband to procreate with another man. The purpose of niyoga was to ensure the continuation of the family lineage and to mitigate the financial and social precariousness that a childless widow would have faced in society. Niyoga was forbidden in Kali Yuga by RishiBrhaspati and other Manusmriti writers. It has been held that niyoga is not akin to polyandry. Sir Henry Maine argued that niyoga was of a later date than levirate marriage (the Hebrew practice of marrying a brother's widow if she had no son), while J. D. Mayne described levirate union as merely an enlarged form of niyoga that came into effect after a man's death. The practice enabled a woman to bear children upon union with a male possessing "desirable seed".