The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c12.37

c12.37

Vedic sacrifices also became very complicate at this time; they could be properly performed only by those who had studied their minute intricacies very carefully. As a consequence, the participation of women in sacrifices gradually became a mere matter of formality. For some time wives continued to perform the duties that were formerly allotted to them in sacrifices, but gradually a tendency arose to allot most of the sacrificial work to males. Many sacrificial duties that could be once discharged by the wife alone, came to be assigned to male substitutes in the age of the Brāhmaṇas¹. In some rituals like the Srastarārohaṇa, women continued to take a prominent part and recite the Vedic Mantras down to *c.* 500 B. C.(*P. G. S.*, III, 2), but the practice was becoming gradually unpopular. The wife was originally entitled to offer oblations in the Gṛihya fire in the absence of the husband; now a son, or a brother-in-law began to act in her place (*S.G.S.*, II, 17, 13). She continued to perform the evening sacrifice down to the beginning of the Christian era, but the recitation of the Vedic Mantras was prohibited to her on the occasion¹.