The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c15.s2.1

c15.s2.1

The reader must have seen that on the whole the dress of Hindu women was simple. Simplicity, however, did not characterise their tastes in the realm of ornaments. Since very early times they have been fond of wearing very brilliant and artistic ornaments in quantities that cannot be described as meagre. Men, however, are to a large extent responsible for the development of this taste among women ; for a reader of the Vedic literature or a student of ancient sculptures and paintings will find it difficult to decide as to who was fonder of ornaments, men or women. Men used to vie with women in the number of ornaments to be worn on their person. They seem to have lagged behind them only in the case of the ornaments on the forehead, which were generally used by women alone. This fondness for ornaments was to some extent a natural consequence of the general prosperous condition of our motherland in these days.