The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c14.s2.38

c14.s2.38

We have seen already how there were early texts, which did not recognise the widow as an heir and allowed her only a maintenance. The new school cleverly explained them away as referring to concubines or unchaste wives. The chaste widow, it was argued, could never be deprived of her inherent right to inherit the entire property of the husband². Now there can be no doubt that this interpretation, though ingenious, is altogether unjustifiable; earlier writers did undoubtedly intend to exclude from inheritance not only concubines and unchaste wives, but also chaste widows. Later champions of women’s rights could not follow the straightforward course of refusing to accept the opinions of their predecessors; they had to devise some means, whereby they could explain away the earlier contrary texts without showing any disrespect to their writers. Reform in Hindu social customs and institutions has usually taken this peculiar course owing to the great conservatism of the race.