As a woman, in the absence of her husband, marries his younger brother, even so the Earth, for the refusal of the Brahmana, has accepted his next-born, viz., the Kshatriya, for her master. This is the first rule. In times, however, of distress, there is exception of this.
पत्यभावे यथैव स्त्री देवरं कुरुते पतिम्। एष ते प्रथमः कल्प आपद्यन्यो भवेत् ततः॥