The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c16.101

c16.101

It must be, however, pointed out that the maxim ‘ Women deserve no independence ’ was not literally interpreted even by those who neglected the protection aspect of the doctrine. Manu, for instance, allows the wife large powers in the management of the household. It was she who was to control its expenditure and supervise the general arrangements of the kitchen, furniture, and periodical religious and secular functions¹. Nārada, who has emphasised on the perpetual tutelage of women, lays down that at the death of the father, the mother was to be preferred as the guardian of the minor children to any other male relation (I, 37); her perpetual tutelage did not disqualify her for the task. The view that mothers in their old age should be under the control and guidance of their sons, though expressed in some Smṛitis, never found general acceptance in society. As a matter of fact writers like Manu, who have advocated this view, have themselves abandoned it later on. Thus Manu does not allow sons to excercise even their legal right to claim a partition, as long as their mother is alive. It was thus the major sons and not the aged mother, who suffered from want of independence. After the death of the father, even when sons were majors, it was the mother who, in practice if not in theory, guided and controlled the household. We have already seen in chapter VI (*ante*, pp. 220–2) how queen regents used to excercise considerable influence over the general administration of their kingdoms by taking the reins of government in their own hands. The influence continued even when sons used to attain majority. This would be quite clear from the prominent part which Kuntī, for instance, played in shaping the policy of her sons. Every one who knows anything of Hindu society is well aware of the important position which the mother usually occupies in the counsels of the family. The juridical doctrine of dependence of women vanished before the great reverence that was instinctively shown to the mother by her sons. Hence she occupied an honoured and exalted position in the family. Even foreigners were very often struck by it. Thus Dr. Leitner, the Educational Commissioner in the Punjab during the 3rd quarter of the last century, has observed that the difficult task of mediation in family disputes was best performed by the elderly women of the household.