The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c11.s3.1

c11.s3.1

Let us now see what part women took in the administration of the country. Political thinkers were not unanimous as to whether it is desirable to permit women to become rulers of the state. One school saw no objection in allowing them to ascend the throne. There is a proposal in the Rāmāyaṇa to offer the crown to Sītā, when Rāma was banished to the forest¹. It could not materialise owing to Sītā’s determination to accompany her husband in his banishment. Bhīshma advised Yudhishṭhira to sanction the coronations of the daughters of those kings, who had died in the war and left behind no male issues². In Orissa when king Lalitābharaṇadeva died towards the end of the 9th century A. D., his widowed queen was requested by the feudatories to accept the sovereignty, come to her in course of succession. In compliance to their request, we are told, she ascended the lion-throne like Kātyāyanī³. It is to be noted that queen Tribhuvanadevī was not a regent for any minor son, but was ruling as a sovereign in her own rights after the death of her husband.