The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c12.s1.3

c12.s1.3

that they should avoid the company of men of doubtful character; that only monks of unquestioned purity and integrity should be allowed to preach before nuns; that they should always live together in groups of twos and threes, etc. Some other rules, however, betray a lack of confidence in the character and judgment of women. Thus the admission of a new nun was to be sanctioned by a joint meeting of the monks and nuns; new monks, however, could be admitted without consulting the nuns at all. Nuns were to go out to beg only when led by an experienced matron. The climax is, however, reached by the rule which lays down that a nun, though 100 years old, must stand in reverence before a monk, though he may have been just initiated in the Church. The reader will not now be surprised to learn that a nun could never preach before a congregation of monks, though the selected ones among the latter could preach before a congregation of nuns¹. It may be here added that early Christian Fathers shared similar views; they held that it was contrary to nature that women should be allowed to preach. The Council of Laodicea closed the doors of the preaching career to women in 365 a. d., and not all the feminist agitation has succeeded even now (1938 a. d.), in getting them reopened for them. Islam permits women to read the Koran, but not to preach from it².