The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c11.s1.28

c11.s1.28

In Sanskrit dramas, we do not find any traces of the Purda system. The plots of the *Śākuntala*, and the *Mālatī-Mādhava*, for example, would not have been possible in a Purda-ridden society. In the first Act of the *Śākuntala* the maidens do not cover their faces with veils, even when they see and converse with Dushyanta¹. In the Mālatī-Mādhava the heroine and her numerous friends go out to the temple without any veil whatsoever; the hero is thus able to perceive the maddening beauty of the heroine and falls in love with her. Similarly in the Kādambarī of Bāṇa, neither Mahāśvetā nor Kādambarī, nor any of their numerous friends and attendants observe any Purda. From the *Meghadūta* (I, 26) we learn that women of Ujjayinī used to go to the Siprā for sport in water at the time of bath. This would not have been possible if the Purda were in vogue there. Yuan Chuang has given an intimate picture of the Hindu society of the 7th century A. D., but he nowhere refers to the Purda system. We learn from him that Rājyaśrī, the widowed sister of Harsha, used to come out without a veil in her brother's court. The *Rājataranginī* gives a detailed account of the life in Kashmir court and palace during the period 700-1150 A. D.; but we can nowhere get any references to the Purda in it. Abu Zaid, an Arabian traveller of the early 10th century, has noted that in most of the courts in India queens appeared in public without any veils (Elliot and Dowson, I, p. 11). It is therefore clear that the Purda was confined to a very small section of the ruling classes down to the 10th century A. D.