The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c10.s3.8

c10.s3.8

Among Jains and Buddhists, nuns used to be shaved. The custom of the tonsure of widows seems to have been borrowed from this practice. At any rate it smacked of a heterodox tendency to some orthodox thinkers, and they proceeded to oppose it on that account tooth and nail. This was the case with the Śrīvaishṇavas of southern India, many of whose Saṁhitās prohibit tonsure of women in express and decisive terms¹. The prohibition extends to both maidens and widows. The question of the tonsure of maidens would arise only if they wanted to become nuns, availing themselves of the permission given in Buddhism and Jainism. The opposition of Śrīvaishṇavas to the custom was most vehement; they declare that a woman who shaved her head would go to the most terrible hell; she would become a Chaṇḍālī in a subsequent life. The most advisable course for a widow, therefore, was to continue to have her hair till her death. This opposition, however, was of no avail, for eventually the custom spread even among the Vaishṇavas of south India.