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The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c17.s3: The Age of Later Smṛitis, Commentators and Digest-Writers (c. 500 A. D. to c. 1800 A. D.)

The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c17.s3

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English

The Age of Later Smṛitis, Commentators and Digest-Writers (c. 500 A. D. to c. 1800 A. D.)

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The only sphere in which the position of women improved in this age was the one of proprietary rights; otherwise she continued to lose all along the line. The right of the widow to inherit the share of her husband came to be eventually recognised all over the country by *c.* 1200 A. D. In Bengal the position was further improved by conceding her this right even when her husband had not separated from the joint family at the time of his death. The scope of the Strīdhana was further extended by the Mitāksharā school by including in it property acquired even by inheritance and partition. The widow's estate continued to be a limited one, but in some parts of south India she was allowed to gift it away for religious purposes without the consent of the reversioners.

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Proprietary rights apart, in all other spheres the position of women continued to deteriorate in this period. Most of the causes responsible for women's degradation during the last period continued to operate in this age also. The *upanayana* of women went completely out of vogue. From the theological point of view the woman therefore came naturally to be regarded as of the same status as the Śūdra. This inflicted an incalculable harm on their general status and prestige. The marriageable age of girls was lowered down still further. Towards the end of the former period, it was recommended that girls should be married just before the time of their puberty. It would appear that this did not exclude the possibility of a few negligent parents failing to marry their daughters before that time. To prevent this possibility it now came to be declared that a girl becomes mature (*ṛituprāptā*) not when menses appear at the age of 13 or 14, but at the age of 10 or 11, when some preliminary symptoms of impending puberty manifest themselves. The proper age for marriage was therefore 10. The age of 8, however, was regarded as the ideal one ; marriage in the case of girls corresponded to *upanayana* in the case of boys, and the proper age for the latter was 8. In Kshatriya families, however, girls continued to be married at about the age of 14 or 15. Widow marriages had become prohibited at this period. The Satī custom had become very common in the fighting classes. The Kshatriya father therefore did not think of marrying his daughter at a tender age, when there was always the possibility of his son-in-law dying before his beloved daughter had come of age in the interminable internecine warfare, that had become common at this time. Many Kshatriya ladies were often called upon to assume the reins of government as regents; so training in administrative duties and military excercises had to be given to them. This also necessitated the postponement of their marriage to a somewhat advanced age.

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In the case of non-Kshatriya girls, who were married at the age of 10 or 11, naturally no education worth the name could be imparted. Down to about 1200 a. d., daughters in rich families continued to receive some literary education through special teachers; a few of them used to distinguish themselves as poetesses and critics down to the 10th century a. d. But this tradition died down when the old aristocracy perished or declined in importance after the establishment of the Muslim rule. In ordinary families naturally girls now began to grow in ignorance; no education worth the name was possible before the age of 10 or 11, which had now become the usual marriageable age. At the advent of the British rule the literacy among women was confined only to the class of dancing girls; women in respectable families felt very uneasy if it was suspected that they were literate. Being generally illiterate and inexperienced, women naturally ceased to inspire respect, and the tendency to pass cynical observations about their weakness and worthlessness became more common.

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Brides of 8 or 9 could naturally have no voice in the settlement of their marriages; they could also become no proper companions to their husbands owing to their immense intellectual inferiority. Their position therefore *vis-a-vis* their husbands further deteriorated. The Christian theologians were declaring at this time that the husband was the head of the wife, as Christ was the head of the Church. Hindu Smṛitis advocated an exactly similar doctrine, and maintained that the husband was the wife's god and her only duty was to obey and serve him. The evil example of royal harems made polygamy more and more fashionable. Marital faithlessness on the part of the husband became more common owing to the custom of child marriage. Early marriage was naturally followed by early maternity, which increased the mortality among women between the ages of 14 and 22. Young widowers of 25 or 30 were naturally more eager to follow the rule of Manu, which permitted an immediate remarriage, than to emulate the example of Śrī-Rāmachandra, who declined to marry a second time. Widowers of 25 or 30, however, could get brides of 9 or 10 only. This enormous disparity between the ages of the two parties naturally helped the spread of concubinage in society. Its moral tone was affected, and it began to feel nothing objectionable in allowing dancing girls to sing and dance on holy occasions like those of *upanayana* and marriage, or at the time of the religious service in temples. The opposition of purists to this custom proved of no avail, and eventually the association of dancing girls with sacred Saṁskāras and temple worship became quite common in several parts of the country.

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Down to *c.* 500 a. d. permission was granted to child widows to remarry, though the widow marriage in general had come to be tabooed. This permission came to be gradually withdrawn durring this period. From about 1,000 a. d. no widow in a respectable family could remarry, whatever her age may have been at the time of her husband's death. In the beginning only widows in the higher sections of society suffered from this disability, but in course of time it came to be extended to those lower classes also, which were anxious to be considered respectable. The prohibition of widow remarriage came to be regarded as the most important criterion of the respectability of a class down to the beginning of the present century. The prejudice against the widow remarriage was so deep-rooted, that the permissive legislation passed in the matter in 1856 a. d., had no appreciable effect on the situation for more than half a century.

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We have shown above that at *c.* 500 a.d. the custom of Satī was meeting with considerable opposition from the thinking sections of our society. That opposition continued unabated for another 500 years, and the majority of Smṛitis went on averring that the custom amounted to a suicide and could bring no spiritual salvation. Eventually, however, owing to the growing appreciation of the ascetic ideals and practices, the custom of the Satī came to be surrounded with a halo and began to make a wider appeal. First it was confined to the fighting classes. Smṛiti writers and their commentators down to about the 11th century declare that it would be sinful for a Brahmana widow to burn herself on the funeral pyre of her husband. Gradually, however, Brahmanas also began to follow the custom, as they did not like to be excelled by Kshatriyas in the pursuit of ascetic practices. Widows now had a dismal prospect before them. They could not remarry. Some of them who were very young must have felt it to be no easy task to walk straight on the narrow and difficult path of strict chastity. They therefore very often preferred the terrible ordeal of the Satī to the tiresome life of the widow. Most of the widows who ascended the funeral pyres of their husbands did so quite voluntarily. Occasionally, however, an unwilling widow was burnt by her fiendish relatives, who were either afraid that she might eventually misbehave and bring disgrace to the family, or who wanted to appropriate for themselves her share in the family property. The recognition of the right of inheritance was thus not an unmixed blessing to the poor widow.

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The tonsure of the widow came into vogue by about the eighth century A.D. With the disappearance of Buddhism at this time, the prejudice against the custom gradually disappeared, and it was recommended to the widow as a kind of help and protection to her in her ascetic resolve and life.

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We have seen above that women were declared to be of the same status as that of the Śūdras, and so came to be gradually excluded from the study of and acquaintance with higher theology and philosophy.

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Women, however, are by nature more religious than men, and so a new type of religious literature was evolved to meet their needs and aspirations. This was the remodelled Pauranic literature. It enunciated the principles of Hinduism in a homely, easy and attractive manner, illustrating them with a number of edifying stories. Pious people made provision all over the country for the exposition of Purāṇas to public audiences. Women became very well grounded in the culture of the race by habitually listening to this literature. Faith, almost blind faith, was however held up for high admiration in Purāṇas. It was therefore well developed in women, to the detriment however of rationalism. It must be however noted that reason was at a discount at this period among males also both in India and Europe.

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We have seen above that the Purda custom was beginning to get a footing in a few royal families in the last period. There was, however, a staunch opposition to it down to the 12th century. Many royal ladies used to plainly tell their husbands that they would not stand the nonsense of the Purda. As a consequence the custom failed to become popular even among royal families down to about 1200 A. D. The advent of the Mahomadens, however, changed the situation. The customs and manners of the conquerors were imitated with as much zeal in the 13th as they were in the 19th century. In the beginning the Purda entered the families of feudatories and nobles, and then it gradually spread among higher classes in northern India. The Muslim influence was weak in the south and so the Purda found no general acceptance there. It got a footing only in a few ruling families.

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Rationalism has been at a discount with Hindu thinkers during the last more than one thousand years; this circumstance has been responsible for a very unfortunate change in society's angle of vision in a very important matter vitally affecting the well-being of women. Down to about 800 A. D. Smṛitis were emphatic in declaring that women, who were forcibly taken into captivity or dishonoured, should be admitted back to their families. Pseudo-puritanical notions distorted social vision in this matter soon after *c.* 1000 A. D. Hindu society began to show a surprising callousness to women, who had the misfortune of being carried away into captivity even for a very short time. An outsider like Alberuni could not understand the stupidity of our community in refusing to readmit men and women, who had been captured and converted by force. If one's hand gets soiled, he argues, one should proceed to cleanse and not to cut it. But Hindu society could not understand this very reasonable proposition. From *c.* 1,000 A. D. it refused to follow the lead of Smṛiti writers and declared that once a woman was converted or taken into captivity, nothing would justify her readmission to her old family and religion. This callous and unreasonable attitude has cost Hindu society very dearly. Had the women, who had been forcibly converted or captured, been readmitted into Hindu society, its population would certainly not have dwindled down today to 25 crores.

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The above survey of the position of Hindu women would show that their condition has been on the whole deteriorating during the last two thousand years. It is no doubt true that women as a general rule received similar and often worse treatment in contemporary times in several other civilisations both in the East and the West. But this can hardly be a sufficient consolation or justification for us. For, we had once already evolved a fairly satisfactory standard about the treatment of women and then failed to act up to it owing to our subsequent developments, which we ought to have checked. It is true that there was no female education worth the name even in the West down to the middle of the 19th century, but that would not condone its neglect by us, when we had once seen its benefits and advantages. It may be that early marriages may have been common in many countries in ancient and medieval times; but that would not justify the conduct of later Smṛiti writers in disapproving the earlier custom of post-puberty marriges. It may be that seclusion of women in one form or another was common in several European countries for several centuries; but that would hardly be a sufficient excuse for our resorting to that custom, especially when we were once going on without it.

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It has also to be pointed out that some of the grievances from which women were suffering during the last two thousand years were either theoretical or common to both men and women. Thus it was only a handful of Pandits, who under the influence of theological theories, regarded women as being of the same status as that of the Śūdras; to ordinary society, however, women were symbols of purity, religiousness and spirituality. They, and not men, were the custodians of national culture, and determined the details of religious rituals and ceremonies more authoritatively than the professional priest. It is true that literacy among women rapidly declined during the last two thousand years. But the the same was the case with men, though no doubt to a lesser degree. Outside priestly and commercial classes, literacy was not of great use either. The printing press was yet to come into existence. Books were very costly and almost unprocurable to men of ordinary means. The usual way of imbibing national culture and traditional wisdom was to listen to the village preacher (*Kathaka* or *Purāṇika*), and illiterate women had greater facilities and opportunities to do this than literate men. It is true that owing to the lowering of the marriageable age, brides lost all voice in the settlement of their marriages. But the same was the case with the bride-grooms also, who being only 14 or 15, could naturally have no effective say in the selection of their partners in life. It must be added that parents normally took all possible care to make the best possible choice. Moreover, it was an age when parental authority was instinctively obeyed; not even one bride or bride-groom in a million ever dreamt of nursing any grievance for being denied a voice in the settlement of the marriage.

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Even during the last two thousand years the average woman continued to lead a happy and contented life, fondled by her parents, loved by her husband and revered by her children. It must be, however, admitted that her cup of happiness was more frequently spilt in this period than ever before by the prohibition of widow remarriage, the revival of the Satī custom, the spread of the Purda and the greater prevalence of polygamy and supersession. Society’s attitude towards her was also one of patronising condescension. It no doubt insisted that she should be properly cared for and attended to, but did not take any effective steps to check the growing tendency to pass very uncharitable and utterly unjustifiable remarks about her nature and worth. It allowed the husband to trample under foot the marriage vow quite openly, but insisted that it should be followed by the wife, even if her husband were a moral wreck.

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As shown already by us in the course of the preceding chapters, there were no doubt some extenuating and often sufficient causes for the spread of many of the above unfortunate tendencies, customs and institutions. But we must now realise that circumstances have radically changed and customs and institutions must follow suit. In a society living in an ascetic atmosphere, it may have been thought desirable to prohibit widow remarriage; in the modern age of morbid talkies and four anna novels, to continue to insist upon that prohibition would be suicidical. Polygamy may have had some justification when a son was genuinely believed to be necessary for spiritual salvation; in a society which no longer subscribes to that belief, it becomes an odious institution. In an age when children were married very young and were accustomed to obey the parents instinctively, no one thought of questioning their sole authority to arrange their wards’ marriages; in the new epoch when marriages are taking place at an advanced age and when every adult has begun to claim absolute independence as his birth right, it would be no longer justifiable for guardians to excercise the same powers as before. Hindu society will have to remove a number of cobwebs in its ancient house and change and even revolutionise some of its customs and institutions in order to accord the proper place which justly belongs to women.

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