The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c11.s1.14

c11.s1.14

It would appear that all the three passages above referred to, are interpolations of a later age, when the Purda system was introduced in a few royal families. For the other data in the epics themselves go against the prevalence of the Purda. Thus when Kauśalyā, Kaikeyī and Sumitrā go out to Chitrakūṭa to induce Rāma to return to Ayodhyā, they move in public without any veil. Sītā herself feels no embarrassment of a Purda lady, when she is going out through the streets of Ayodhyā. In the forests too, which were infested with demons and enemies, she is moving about without any veil. So the poet's observation that she had not been seen even by the spirits of the sky is simply a poetic exaggeration made to heighten the pathos of her banishment to forest life. Draupadī's public appearance in the gambling hall presupposes an entire absence of the Purda. Neither Kuntī nor Gāndhārī is seen to be observing it. In the story of king Poshya, narrated in the Mahābhārata (I, 1-3), we find the student Uttaṅka proceeding to the queen in her harem in order to beg her earrings for presenting them to his teacher's wife. This would not have been possible, if there were Purda in the king's palace. Apart from the verses referred to in the last paragraph, the epics show no acquaintance with the Purda system. They are therefore likely to be later additions, made with the desire to heighten the pathos of the departure of Sītā and Dhṛitarāshṭra to forest.