The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c13.3

c13.3

In early times proprietary rights of women were recognised very tardily in almost all civilisations. This was the case specially in patriarchal societies. For a long time there was no question of the woman holding any property; she herself was an item in the moveable property of the husband or the patriarch. This was the case among the Teutons. The Frisians used to give their women and children in payment of their taxes to Rome, when they had no other means to discharge their liabilities. At Rome the husband could sell his wife in early times, the right being taken away only at the beginning of the Christian era. For a long time the wife was under the tutelage of her husband and could possess no separate property at all, if she was married according to the orthodox religious rites. Even after the husband's death she did not bcome a *sui jure*, but passed under the tutelage of other male relatives. During the feudal age in Europe, women could no doubt inherit and hold even landed property. This was, however, a nominal right. Women were really pawns in the hands of kings. Land was for military service, which women were incapable of rendering. So the emperor would take immediate steps to marry the daughters or widows of his barons or knights to whomsoever he liked. When in his Spanish campaigns a number of his noblemen died, Charlmaigne immediately married their widows to the barons of his own choice. He was anxious that land should not be under the ownership of those who could not fight in his wars. Whether the widows concerned wanted to marry, and if so, whether they had approved of the proposed new husbands, was a matter which he did not stop to enquire. Women were a sort of vitalised deed of conveyance. They were hardly as important as horses, which were so useful in war, save as living titles to landed property¹.