The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c16.11

c16.11

Whether the passage in question is a genuine one or not, one thing is quite clear; our Smṛiti writers have refused to prescribe for average women the unreasonable standard of purity attributed in it to Śrī-Rāma. They perhaps thought that it was a good ideal, but too high to be followed in actual life. They felt that it was necessary and equitable to treat women in Sītā's plight with much greater sympathy and reasonableness than what is shown in the present version of the Rāmāyaṇa. With a broadmindedness that is indeed admirable, a number of Smṛitis and Purāṇas declare that women, who had the misfortune of being made prisoners, or of being assaulted criminally, should be treated with sympathy, and not with contempt, and be accepted back by their families after they had performed certain purificatory rituals.