The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c14.s2.41

c14.s2.41

In spite of the able advocacy of the cause of the widow by the reform school, it took several centuries for her right to be recognised throughout India. The Deccan was more advanced in this respect than northern India. A writer of the 6th century B. C. observes that it is customary for the southerners to recognise the proprietary rights of women¹. Among the champions of widows’ rights the provenance of Bṛihaspati, Vyāsa and Prajāpati is not known, but Yājñavalkya was a southerner, and his commentator Vijñāneśvara hailed from the Deccan, as he was a court poet of the Chālukya emperor Vikramāditya VI. That the widow's right of inheritance, so enthusiastically advocated in the *Mitāksharā*, was actually recognised in contemporary Deccan can be proved from epigraphical evidence. A 12th century inscription from Karnatak, while describing the scheme of devolution of property current in a certain village, mentions the widow as the heir immediately after the son (*E. I.*, V, p. 28). An inscription from Tanjore district, belonging to the same century, declares that a lawfully wedded wife inherits the whole property of the husband, including land, cattle, slaves, jewels and other valuables (*S. I. E. R.*, for 1919, pp. 97-8).