Niyoga

(“appointment”) Practice by which a
childless widow could have intercourse
with her dead husband’s brother, or
some other “appointed” male, in order
to bear a son. The child is considered the
son of the dead man and preserves his
lineage. There is significant disagreement about the propriety of this practice
in the dharma literature. Some of these
texts permit it, although hedged with
numerous conditions, but others
unconditionally condemn it. Niyoga is
one of the practices judged to be
478
Nivedita, Sister
Kalivarjya, or “forbidden in the Kali
[Age].” Kalivarjya, which first appeared in
the twelfth century, was a legal strategy
used to forbid certain religious practices
that were prescribed in the sacred literature, but were no longer acceptable in
contemporary times.