The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c14.s1.2

c14.s1.2

A reference has been already made to an old saying that a son, a wife and a slave can own no property independently of the father, the husband and the master (*ante*, p. 261, n.1). The daughter is obviously intended to be included here under the son. In more than one place in the later Vedic literature we come across the view that women have no right of inheritance¹. There is no doubt that in very early times there was a general prejudice against property devolving upon female heirs by inheritance. The daughter formed no exception. She was expected to increase the assets of her father's family by bringing a bride-price. That she should get a share in and decrease the corpus of her father's property would have appeared as very preposterous to men at the dawn of civilisation. The very conception of Stridhana shows that women could normally get property only by way of gifts from their relations at or subsequent to their marriage. There was no possibility of their acquiring any estate either by inheritance or by partition.