The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c17.s1.4

c17.s1.4

Before we proceed to delineate the picture of the condition of women in the next two periods, let us pause a while to consider the causes of this phenomenon of a relatively better condition and status of women in these early centuries, as compared to what it became in subsequent epochs. The reader has already seen in the foregoing pages how there took place a continuous and gradual deterioration in the position of women as a whole during the next two thousand years (*c.* 500 B. C., to *c.* 1500 A. D.). How are we to explain this phenomenon? Usually we find that the condition of women improves as society advances to modern times. How is it that there is an exception in the case of the position of women in Hindu civilisation?