The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c3.1

c3.1

There are some monographs which deal with the position of Hindu women in particular periods of Indian history, but no work has as yet been written which reviews their position throughout the long history of Hindu civilisation. An attempt has therefore been made in this book to describe the position of women in Hindu civilisation from prehistoric times to the present day, and to indicate the general lines on which the various problems that confront Hindu women (and therefore men also) should be tackled in order to get a fairly satisfactory solution. Every effort has been made to utilise all possible sources of information,—Vedic, epic, Jain, Buddhist, Smṛiti and classical Sanskrit literatures, sculptures and paintings, coins and inscriptions, narratives of foreign travellers, both ancient and medieval, accounts of European merchants and missionaries, Government blue books and reports, modern works on the feminist movement, both in the East and the West. Most of the above authorities have been consulted in the original.