The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c16.68

c16.68

From about the beginning of the Christian era we begin to come across passages, which were deliberately written for the purpose of blackening the character of women. In one place in the Mahābhārata we are told that sensual enjoyment is the sole aim of woman’s existence³. In another place a woman herself is made to narrate a story illustrating how her sex is fickle and faithless by its very innate nature (XIII, 73-8). We are gravely informed that the sex urge in women is so great that they will eagerly unite with the meanest of men¹. Nearest consanguinity would be no effective bar. If a woman has remained virtuous, it is simply because she could not get a proper lover, place and opportunity². A man with a hundred tongues would die before finishing the task of lecturing upon the vices and defects of women, even if he were to do nothing else throughout a long life of hundred years³.