The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c12.51

c12.51

The prohibition of Vedic sacrifices to women did not, however, produce any long standing hardship; for these sacrifices themselves soon went out of vogue. Neither men nor women were eager to perform them from about the beginning of the Christian era. What however did infinite harm to women was the theory that they were ineligible for them because they were of the status of the Śūdras. Henceforward they began to be bracketed with Śūdras and other backward classes in society. This we find to be the case even in the *Bhagavadgītā* (IX, 32).