The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c14.s2.3

c14.s2.3

We have already seen that there was a general prejudice in early times against allowing women to hold property. Even the wife, who was regarded as the husband's co-owner in the family property, had only very limited rights as against her consort. It is then no wonder that for a long time widow's right to inherit her husband's property should have remained unrecognised. Vedic texts, which declare women to be incapable of inheriting any property¹, are particularly aimed against the widow. Joint family of the patriarchal type was the order of the day; males alone could be coparceners in it, women being allowed only a maintenance. In early times the custom of Niyoga was very common; so widows without sons were very few. A vast majority of widows therefore used to get their husbands’ shares, if not directly as their heirs, at least indirectly as the guardians of their minor sons. Very often they used to marry, and so the question of giving them a share in their dead husbands’ property would not arise at all. The refusal to recognise the widow as an heir to her husband was thus causing not much actual hardship in society.