The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c17.8

c17.8

For the purposes of the proposed survey, period by period, it is unfortunately not possible to divide the history into smaller and more numerous periods. The data at our disposal are too scanty for the purpose. The difficulty is further increased by our inability to know the precise dates of many of our authorities. Some of the works are further composite ones; there can be, for instance, no doubt that the present Mahābhārata and Manusmṛiti contain ideas popular in epochs, which were separated from each other by more than half a millennium. The period-wise survey is therefore beset with considerable difficulties, but has to be nevertheless attempted for the general reader in the interest of clarity.