A History of Sanskrit Literature c9.50

c9.50

Though the wife, like the children, was subject to the will of her husband, she occupied a position of greater honour in the age of the *Rigveda* than in that of the Brāhmaṇas, for she participated with her husband in the offering of sacrifice. She was mistress of the house (*gṛihapatnī*), sharing the control not only of servants and slaves, but also of the unmarried brothers and sisters of her husband. From the *Yajurveda* we learn that it was customary for sons and daughters to marry in the order of their age, but the *Rigveda* more than once speaks of girls who remained unmarried and grew old in their father's house. As the family could only be continued in the male line, abundance of sons is constantly prayed for, along with wealth in cattle and land, and the newly wedded husband hopes that his bride may become a mother of heroes. Lack of sons was placed on the same level as poverty, and adoption was regarded as a mere makeshift. No desire for the birth of daughters is ever expressed in the *Rigveda*; their birth is deprecated in the *Atharva-veda*, and the *Yajurveda* speaks of girls being exposed when born. Fathers, even in the earliest Vedic times, would doubtless have sympathised with the sentiment of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, that "to have a daughter is a misery." This prejudice survives in India to the present day with unabated force.