Page 210 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Unit 9: Status of Women

In inheriting property, women’s rights were limited. As a daughter, though a woman had no share in Notes
her father’s property, yet each unmarried daughter was entitled to one-fourth share of patrimony
received by her brothers. Mother’s property, after her death, was equally divided among sons and
unmarried daughters. Married daughters, however, received only a token of respect. Stridhan was
inherited only by unmarried daughters. As a wife, a woman had no direct share in her husband’s
property. However, a forsaken wife was entitled to one-third of her husband’s wealth. If a wife was
poor, her husband was to provide for her maintenance. But if the property was divided during the
lifetime of husband, his wife was to get an equal share with her sons. As a widow, a woman was
supposed to lead an ascetic life and had no share in her husband’s property. As a widowed mother,
however, she had some rights. All this reveals that though there was a general prejudice against
allowing women to hold property, yet some protection was given to them as daughters and wives.
The political status of women depends on the political situation and the existing political system in
the country. Since the political system in ancient India was based on monarchy, there were no
legislatures, political parties, diplomatic relations, and international conferences. In such a situation,
the question of giving voting right or freedom for contesting elections and holding political posts to
women did not arise. Women were not permitted entry in the sabhas (assemblies) because these places
besides being used for taking political decisions, were also used for gambling, drinking and such
other purposes. However, some examples, such as of Kekai’s in the Ramayana period, point out that
women also accompanied their husbands to war fronts. Megasthenes had referred to the bodyguard
of armed women employed in the palace by the Emperor Chandragupta Maurya; Kautilya had also
referred in Arthasastra to women soldiers armed with bows and arrows. Thus, when even the male
population had no political rights of its own to exercise, how could women have any separate political
status?
In the religious field, wife enjoyed full rights and regularly participated in religious ceremonies with
her husband. In fact, the performance of religious ceremonies was considered invalid without wife
joining her husband as his full partner. Women even participated actively in religious discourses.
The participation of Brahmavadini Gargi Vachaknavi along with many male learned exponents and
representatives of the different schools of philosophy in the conference—described as the conference
of its kind in the world—convened by the philosopher king Janaka of Videha for codifying the scientific
religious doctrines and practices, indicates the high religious status of women in ancient India. Jaimini’s
Purva-mimansa has been interpreted by Sahara Svami as dealing with the equal rights of men and
women to the performance of the highest religious ceremonies. Hemadri refers to educated kumaris
(unmarried girls) as vidushis who should be married to equally learned husbands called manishis
(Radha Kumud Mukherjee, 1957 and 1990: 6).
It may, thus, be concluded that in Vedic India, the status of women was not low. They had ample
rights in the social and the religious fields and limited rights in the economic and the political fields.
They were not treated as inferior or subordinate but equal to men.
Women in the Pauranic Period
The status of women was lowered in the Pauranic period. (The chronological order of religious
scriptures of Hindu society is: Vedas, Brahmanas, Upanishads, Griha-sutras, Dharmashastras, Smritis,
Epics, and Puranas). In the social field, pre-puberty marriages came to be practised, widow remarriage
was prohibited, husband was given the status of god for a woman, education was totally denied to
women, custom of sati became increasingly prevalent, purdah (veil) system came into vogue, and
practice of polygyny came to be tolerated. In the economic field, a woman was totally denied a share
in her husband’s property by maintaining that “a wife and a slave cannot own property.” In the
religious field, she was forbidden to offer sacrifices and prayers, practice penances, and undertake
pilgrimages.
Prabhati Mukherjee has identified some reasons of low status of women in the Pauranic period by
quoting Altekar, (1938) Winternitz (1920), Mitter, and Choudhry (1956). These reasons are: imposition
of Brahmanical austerities on the entire society, rigid restrictions imposed by the caste system and
the joint family system, lack of educational facilities for women, introduction of the non-Aryan wife
into the Aryan household, and foreign invasion (Alexander, etc.) of India.

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