The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c6: List of Plates
The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c6
- Language
- English
List of Plates
c6.1
(BOUND AT THE END OF THE BOOK)
c6.2
Plate I, A Royal Procession. Plate II, The worship of a Bodhi Tree. Plate III A, A Yakshiṇī. ,, ,, B, Chulakoka Devatā. Plate IV A, A Statue of a *Chauri*-bearer, front side. ,, ,, B, The same, back side. Plate V A, A Sculpture of a Nāgiṇī in human form. ,, ,, B, Goddess Lakshmī seated on a wicker stool. Plate VI, Reception of a Prince. Plate VII, The Worship of a Bodhi Tree. Plate VIII, Some Fashions of Coiffure.
c6.3
of sympathy that is developed in a community can very well be tested by the treatment it metes out to the widow. The genuineness of its appreciation of the value of education can be ascertained by finding out whether its benefits were extended to the fair sex. The progress in fine arts like music and dancing depends a good deal on the facilities given to women for specialising in them. A study of their dress and ornaments gives us an idea of the wealth of a community and enables us to obtain a glimpse of its progress in trade, mining and metallurgy and the skill in inlaying, tailoring and embroidery.
c6.4
The degree of freedom given to women to move about in society and to take part in its public life gives a good idea of the nature of its administration and enables us to know how far it had realised the difficult truth that women too have a contribution of their own to make to its development and progress. How far a religion stands for justice and fairplay and how far it has succeeded in exploding prejudices and shibboleths of a primitive age can be seen from the position it assigns to women in its ritual and theology. The nature of its philosophy can well be ascertained from the observations of its philosophers about the nature and worth of the fair sex.
c6.5
The history of the position and status of women is therefore of vital importance to the student of Hindu civilisation. The subject is a very wide and comprehensive one, for we shall have to ascertain not only the general estimate formed about women in the different periods of our long history, but its actual effects also upon the diverse spheres of their activities during the different stages of their life. The best way to begin our enquiry is to study the condition of women during their childhood and to find out the general arrangement made about their training and education. This will at once disclose to us the concern of society for women and the steps it was taking for properly starting them in life.
c6.6
The history of Hindu civilisation can be taken back to prehistoric times. The data for some of the subsequent centuries are still incomplete and unsatisfactory; nevertheless we can trace its development through the subsequent periods with a fair amount of confidence and reliability. We shall, therefore, begin our narrative in each chapter with the pre-Vedic period and bring it down to the present age, and conclude by indicating the lines on which further development should take place in future in view of the tendencies shown in the past.
c6.7
In ancient times almost in all patriarchal societies the birth of a girl was an unwelcome event. Almost everywhere the son was valued more than the daughter. He was a permanent economic asset of the family. He lived with his aged parents and did not migrate like the daughter to another family after the marriage. He perpetuated the name of his father's family. As he grew into adolescence and youth, he could offer valuable co-operation to his family, when it had either to defend itself or to attack an enemy. The daughter, on the other hand, had no fighting value whatever. It is no doubt true that women have potential military value: by giving birth to sons they contribute indirectly to the fighting strength and efficiency of their community. The primitive man, however, could not take a long view of the situation. He therefore hardly ever welcomed the advent of a daughter. In actual fighting, he found the woman a handicap rather than a help. Sometimes he abandoned her after her birth ; sometimes he even killed her. Details of these unfortunate practices can be gathered from standard works on sociology like Westermarck's *History of Human Marriage*.
c6.8
The available evidence shows that in India too in early times the daughter was not as welcome as the son. The latter was preferred to the former even in the Indo-Iranian age¹. The same was the case in the Vedic period. The Atharvaveda contains charms and rituals to ensure the birth of a son in preference to that of a daughter (III, 23 ; VI, 11). The latter's birth, however, was not a source of consternation to the family in the Vedic and Upanishadic ages. Nay, we find one of the early Upanishads recommending a certain ritual to a householder for ensuring the birth of a scholarly daughter (*Brih. Up.*, VI, 4, 27). It is true that this ritual did not become as popular as the Puṁsavana one, prescribed for procuring the birth of a son ; but it clearly shows that cultured parents were often as anxious for daughters as they were for sons. Some thinkers have even pointed out that a talented and well behaved daughter may be better than a son (*Saṁ. Nik.*, III, 2, 6). In cultured circles such a daughter was regarded as the pride of the family². In lower sections of society where the custom of the brideprice prevailed, the birth of a daughter must have been a welcome event; we have, however, no literature preserved reflecting their views.
c6.9
¹ Geiger, *Civilisation of the Eastern Iranians*, pp. 53-4.
c6.10
² **कन्ययं कुलजीवितम् ।** *Kumārasaṁbhava*, VI, 63.
c6.11
The reasons why daughters were relatively less unpopular in ancient India during the early centuries are not difficult to understand. They could be initiated in Vedic studies and were entitled to offer sacrifices to gods; the son was not absolutely necessary for this purpose. The marriage of the daughter was not a difficult problem; it was often solved by the daughter herself. The dread of a possible widowhood did not very much weigh upon the mind of parents; for, as will be shown later, remarriage was allowed by society and was fairly common.
c6.12
As time passed on, the above circumstances gradually changed. The importance of ancestor-worship increased and sons alone were regarded as eligible for offering oblations to the manes; daughters could not perform this very important religious duty. Child marriages came into vogue from about the beginning of the Christian era, and soon thereafter both levirate (*niyoga*) and widow remarriage were prohibited. Inter-caste marriages began to be disapproved by society; and there came into existence hundreds of sub-castes all insisting upon mutual exogamy. The field of choice for the selection of a suitable son-in-law thus became very narrow, intensifying thereby the anxiety of the daughter's father about the selection of a proper bridegroom. If a cruel fate inflicted widowhood upon the daughter, the calamity would break the parents' heart. Remarriage being no longer possible, parents had to bear the heart-rending pain of seeing their daughter wasting herself in an interminable widowhood. The growing prevalence of the Satī custom from about the 5th century A. D. added to the poignancy of the grief ; parents had often to pass through the terrible ordeal of seeing their daughters burning themselves alive on the funeral pyres of their husbands. To become a daughter's parent thus became a source of endless worry and misery.
c6.13
As a natural consequence of the above circumstances, in the literature belonging to the later periods of Hindu civilisation passages about the undesirability of the birth of daughters become more numerous. In the Brāhmaṇa literature there is a solitary passage observing that while the son is the hope of the family, the daughter is a source of trouble to it¹. A similar idea occurs in the Mahābhārata also². The Rāmāyaṇa tells us that when Sītā came of age and her marriage had to be arranged, her father's anxiety became as intense as that of a poor man who suddenly loses all his little money. The epic goes on to observe that a daughter's father, even if occupying a position as exalted as that of the king of gods, has to put up with insults not only from his equals but also from his inferiors³. Even when he succeeds in making a very
c6.14
¹ सखा ह जाया कृपणं हि दुहिता ज्योतिर्हि पुत्रः परमे व्योमन् ।
c6.15
² आत्मा पुत्रः सखी भार्या कृच्छ्रं तु दुहिता नृणाम् । I, 173, 10.
c6.16
³ पतिसंयोगसुलभं वयो दृष्ट्वा तु मे पिता ।
c6.17
*A. Br.*, VII, 13.
c6.18
चिन्तामभ्यगमद्दीनो वित्तनाशादिवाधनः ॥
सदृशाच्चापकृष्टाच्च लोके कन्यापिता जनात् ।
प्रधर्षणमवाप्नोति शक्रेणापि समो भुवि ॥ II, 119, 35-6.
c6.19
good selection of the son-in-law, his anxiety does not terminate; he has to wait anxiously to find out whether the marriage will eventually be a happy one¹. Under these circumstances it was but natural that an 11th century writer should have observed that there is a world of difference between the son and the daughter; the former is bliss itself incarnate, the latter is the root of misery².
c6.20
¹ पुत्रीति जाता महतीह चिन्ता कस्मै प्रदेयेति महान्वितर्कः । दत्वा सुखं प्राप्स्यति वा न वेति कन्यापितृत्वं खलु नाम कष्टम् ॥ *Pañchatantra, Mitrabheda,* 5.
c6.21
² शोककन्दः क्व कन्या हि क्वानन्दः कायवान्सुतः । *Kss.*, 28, 6.
c6.22
It will be thus seen that if there are passages in later literature showing that the birth of a daughter was unwelcome, the reason was not so much the hatred of her sex as the all-engrossing anxiety to see that she was well placed in life and enabled to lead it in comfort and happiness. It has further to be pointed out that the prevailing view that the daughter is less desirable than the son, though popular, was not accepted by all social thinkers. There were some among them who realised that it was causing great harm to society and felt that it ought to be counteracted. They therefore championed the daughter's cause and pointed out that parricides have been a monopoly of the male sex; no father is ever known to have been killed by a daughter either to history or to legend. There are cases on record where daughters like Kuntī³ and Lopāmudrā¹ have saved their parents from dire calamities. In marriage it is the daughter, and not the son, who enables the father to get the great merit of *pṛithvī-dāna* or the gift of the earth. She is thus really better than the son. One should not be, therefore, elated by the birth of a son and depressed by the advent of a daughter (*Kathāsaritsāgara*, 28, 47 ff.). There can be no doubt that these arguments were definitely advanced to counteract the harm that was done by the prevailing tendency to deprecate the birth of a daughter. Owing, however, to the circumstances above described, they did not carry the day.
c6.23
³ Kuntī's father, King Kuntībhoja, had become very nervous when the angry sage Durvāsas came to stay with him as his guest; Kuntī, however, undertook the onerous responsibility of attending upon the guest and keeping him in good humour. She performed her task with remarkable success. *Mbh*, III, 304.
c6.24
¹ In order to save the family from the ire of Agastya, Lopāmudrā consented to marry the sage, fully concious of her ability to persuade him in course of time to lead the normal life of royal comfort. *Ibid*, III, 59.
c6.25
It must be, however, added that the feeling of dejection and dissatisfaction at the birth of a daughter was a fleeting one; it did not lead to female infanticide in ancient India. There are no references to this evil custom in the Vedic, epic or classical literature. Weber had wrongly concluded that a passage in the Yajurveda referred to the custom of the exposure of new-born daughters. It is, however, now generally admitted by Indian and European scholars that Weber's interpretation of the passage in question is wrong. It will appear from the passage and its translation given below² that it merely refers to the traditional habit of Hindu midwives of keeping the child aside on the ground if it was a daughter, and of lifting it up in joy if it was a son. The passage has no reference to the abandonment of unwanted daughters. How a mistake in translation sometimes gives rise to an unfounded theory would become clear from the present instance.
c6.26
² *cf.* **अवभृथमव यन्ति । परा स्थालीरस्यन्ति । उदायव्यानि हरन्ति । तस्मात्स्त्रियं जातां परास्यन्ति उत्पुमांसं हरन्ति ।** *T.S.*, VI, 5, 10; *M.S.*, IV, 6, 4. “They go to the final bath; they deposit pots (called *sthlaī*, the word being feminine in gender), but lift up vessels for *Vāyu* (called *graha*, the word being masculine in gender); therefore they keep a daughter by the side at birth, a son they lift up.”
c6.27
If female infanticide had at all been practised, it must have been confined to a very small section of society. If the evil had been fairly common, Smṛiti writers would certainly have denounced it very vehemently. When we note how eloquent they grow in condemning the conduct of a father who would sell his daughter in marriage, we cannot but conclude that they would have consigned to the most dreadful hell those parents who were guilty of exposing their daughters at birth, because they were unwelcome. Smṛiti writers regard the destruction of an embryo as the most heinous crime; the murder of a child born alive could not have escaped their thundering denunciation.
c6.28
The custom of infanticide of girls crept into some sections of Hindu society during the medieval period. We have seen above that at this time the daughter was regarded as the root of all misery and the source of unending trouble by the average householder. The temptation to do away with her became too irresistible in some uncultured sections of society. The female infanticide, however, never obtained a footing in cultured families. At the advent of the British rule the custom seems to have prevailed to a slight extent in some lower sections of society, but its extent has been very much exaggerated due to the prejudiced, if not malicious, reports of some foreign writers. That the evil was confined to a microscopic minority in society will become abundantly clear when we note that at each of the last five censuses the females between the age period 1-5 have exceeded the males of the same age. This will become clear from the following table : --
c6.29
Age distribution of 10,000 of each sex in India :
c6.30
| Year | No. of boys under 5 | No. of girls under 5 |
| 1931 | 1458 | 1665 |
| 1921 | 1202 | 1306 |
| 1911 | 1327 | 1433 |
| 1901 | 1254 | 1339 |
| 1891 | 1409 | 1527 |
c6.31
Statistics therefore convincingly demonstrate that even fifty years ago the infanticide of girls must have been a very rare practice ; it has since completely disappeared.
c6.32
Let us now resume the story of the fortune of the daughter in ancient India. We have already seen how the passages, showing that the birth of a daughter was an unwelcome event, were a natural result of the greater anxiety which the parents felt for her well-being and happiness. Once the temporary feeling of disappointment was over, the family took as keen an interest in the daughter as it did in the son. On his return from a journey the father used to recite a prayer (*mantra*) for the welfare of his daughter just with the same solicitude as he did for the happiness of his son (*Āp. G. S.*, XV, 12-3). Stories in Sanskrit dramas and novels show that daughters received from their parents and other relations the same affectionate treatment as sons. Nay, some of them like Devayānī were too much fondled and became spoilt children. Goddess of Fortune was regarded as residing in the person of the unmarried daughter¹; so she, and not the unmarried boy, was regarded as an object of good omen. Unmarried girls were, therefore, among the persons selected to receive Rāma on his return to Ayodhyā from his long exile and to offer him the coronation ablution (*abhisheka*). It is interesting to note that Rāma receives this important religious bath first at the hands of unmarried girls, and then of his trusted generals and ministers (Rāmāyaṇa, VI, 138, 38 and 61).
c6.33
¹ नित्यं निवसत लक्ष्मीः कन्याकासु प्रतिष्ठिता । *Mbh.*, XIII, 11, 14 (B. See also *Vishṇusmṛiti*, 99, 14.
c6.34
To impart education to children and to help them in settling in life are the two main duties of parents. Both of them were well discharged with reference to daughters for several centuries in ancient India. Let us first consider the case of education.
c6.35
Down to about the 3rd century B. C. girls could remain unmarried till the age of 16; this will be shown in the next chapter. The period before marriage was utilised for imparting education to them. Down to the beginning of the Christian era *upanayana* or the ceremonial initiation into Vedic studies was as common in the case of girls as it was in the case of boys; this will be shown in Chapter VII. The initiation ceremony was followed by a period of discipline and education which was regarded as very essential to secure a suitable match. The Atharvaveda observes that a maiden can succeed in her marriage only if she has been properly trained during the period of studentship (*brahmacharya*)¹. That women are, like Śūdras, ineligible for Vedic studies is the view of a later age; in prehistoric times lady poets themselves were composing hymns, some of which were destined to be included even in the Vedic Saṁhitās. According to the orthodox tradition itself, as recorded in the *Sarvānukramaṇikā*, there are as many as twenty women among the 'seers' or authors of the Ṛigveda. This tradition, however, is partly unreliable, but internal evidence shows that Lopāmudrā, Viśvavārā, Sikatā Nivāvarī and Ghoshā are undoubtedly the authors of the Ṛigveda 1.179, V. 28, VIII. 91, IX. 81.11-20, and X. 39, and 40 respectively. The authors of X. 145 and 159 are undoubtedly ladies, though it may be doubted whether their real names were Indrāṇī and Śachī as recorded by tradition. Among the authors and scholars to whose memory a daily tribute of respect is enjoined to be paid at the time of *brahmayajña*, a few ladies also are seen to figure; they are Sulabhā Maitreyī, Vaḍavā Prāchiteyī, and Gārgī Vāchaknavī (*Āś. G. S.*, III, 4, 4). These ladies must have made real contributions to the advance of scholarship, otherwise their names would not have been recommended for daily remembrance by posterity for all time to come. It is a great pity that we should know nothing about these lady scholars except their names; their works have been all lost, probably for ever.
c6.36
¹ **ब्रह्मचर्येण कन्या युवानं विन्दते पतिम् ।** XI, 5, 18.
c6.37
Women students were divided into two classes, *Brahmavādinīs* and *Sadyodvāhās*. The former were lifelong students of theology and philosophy; the latter used to prosecute their studies till their marriage at the age of 15 or 16. During the eight or nine years that were thus available to them for study, they used to learn by heart the Vedic hymns prescribed for the daily and periodical prayers and for those rituals and sacraments in which they had to take an active part after their marriage. There is ample evidence to show that, like men, women also used to offer regularly their Vedic prayers both morning and evening. For instance, in more than one place in the Rāmāyaṇa Sītā is described as offering her daily Vedic prayers¹. When writing came into general vogue, girls were initiated into the three R's as a matter of course.
c6.38
¹ *E. g.* **संध्याकालमनाः श्यामा ध्रुवमेष्यति जानकी ।** **नदीं चेमां शुभजलां संध्यार्थं वरवर्णिनी ॥ V, 15, 48.**
c6.39
Brahmavādinīs used to aim at a very high excellence in scholarship. Down to about the 4th century B. C. Vedic and philosophical studies attracted the main attention of society. We therefore find ladies also naturally cultivating these subjects with great devotion and enthusiasm. Besides studying the Vedas, many of them used to specialise in Pūrvamīmānsā, which discussed the diverse problems connected with Vedic sacrifices. This science is a very dry and difficult one, perhaps even more abstruse than mathematics; but still a very large number of ladies used to take deep interest in it. A theologian named Kāśakṛitsna had composed a work on Mīmānsā called Kāśakṛitsnī; lady scholars, who used to specialise in it, were designated as Kāśakṛitsnās (*Mahābhāshya*, IV, 1, 14; 3, 155). If lady scholars in such a technical branch of study were so numerous as to necessitate the coining of a special term to designate them, is it not reasonable to conclude that the number of women, who used to receive general cultural education, must have been fairly large?
c6.40
When the reaction against the Vedic sacrificial religion gave a stimulus to philosophical speculations at about 800 B. C., lady scholars did not lag behind in taking an active interest in the new movement. Yājñavalkya's wife Maitreyī belonged to this class. She was more interested in finding out the way to immortality than in setting new fashions in dress and ornaments¹. In the philosophical tournament held under the auspices of king Janaka of Videha, the subtlest philosophical questions were initiated for discussion by the lady philosopher Gārgī, who had the honour to be the spokesman of the distinguished philosophers at the court. She launched her attack on Yājñavalkya, the newly arrived philosopher, with an admirable coolness and confidence. 'Just as an experienced archer,' says she, 'would get ready to attack his enemy with two piercing arrows kept at hand, so I assail you with two test questions. Answer them if you can.' The topics of her enquiry were so abstruse and esoteric in character, that Yājñavalkya declined to discuss them in public. The searching cross-examination of Yājñavalkya by Gārgī shows that she was a dialectician and philosopher of a high order (*Br. Up.*, III, 6 and 8). Ātreyī was another lady student of Vedānta; she was reading under the sages Vālmīki and Agastya. Some of these lady philosophers used to remain unmarried throughout the life in order to carry on their spiritual experiments unhampered. This tradition was continued later in the Buddhist and Jain circles as well. Among the Buddhist nuns, whose songs are included in the *Therīgāthā*, the majority consists of maidens, who, though born with a silver spoon, had denied to themselves the pleasures of matrimony in order to realise the bliss of salvation (*nirvāṇa*). The Jain tradition has preserved the memory of Jayantī, a daughter of king Sahasrānīka of Kauśāmbī, who remained unmarried out of her love for religion and philosophy. When Mahāvīra first visited Kauśāmbī, she discussed with him several abstruse metaphysical questions and eventually became a nun¹.
c6.41
¹ **येनाहं नामृता स्यां किं तेन (अतिप्रभूतेनापि वित्तेन) कुर्यामिति ।**
c6.42
¹ *Bhagavatīsūtra*, Gujarati edition, Vol. III, p. 257.
c6.43
Many educated women used to follow teaching career either out of love or out of necessity. Sanskrit language found it necessary to coin a special word in order to distinguish them from wives of teachers. The latter, who were not necessarily scholars, were called Upādhyāyānīs, but women who were themselves teachers, were called Upādhyāyās. Women teachers must have been fairly numerous in society; otherwise a new term would not have been coined to designate them. It may be pointed out that the tradition of lady scholars is known to Purāṇas as well; the *Bhāgavata*, for instance, refers to two daughters of Dākshāyaņa as experts in theology and philosophy (IV, 1, 64).
c6.44
The modern reader, on being told that female education was fairly widespread, will naturally enquire whether there was a system of co-education, or whether lady students were taught separately. The historian has to confess that in the present state of our knowledge this question is difficult to answer. In the Vedic age education was mostly centred in the family; brothers, sisters and cousins probably studied together under the family elders. Subsequently, when specialisation became the order of the day, students had to leave their homes and often go to distant places to study under celebrated teachers. When there were competent lady teachers (*āchāryās*) available, parents must have naturally preferred to send their daughters to read under them. But the number of these could not have been very large. In technical subjects like theology, philosophy and medicine most of the experts were usually males, and advanced lady students used to go to them for their studies. This is clear from the example of Ātreyī in the *Uttararāmacharita*, who was reading under Vālmīki along with Lava and Kuśa, the sons of Rāma. It would seem that co-education in higher studies was not unknown even in the 8th century A. D., for Bhavabhūti in his *Mālatīmādhava* represents Kāmandakī as being educated along with Bhūrivasu and Devarāta¹. Usually, however, ordinary girls who did not go in for higher education were educated in their own families by their fathers, uncles or brothers or by local lady teachers. It has to be remembered that, down to the 4th century A. D., there were no public schools even for boys. Writers like Hārīta lay down that girls should be usually taught at home by their male relations¹. They probably refer to the practice of about the 5th century B. C. We should not forget that higher female education was generally confined to cultured and well-to-do families.
c6.45
¹ अयि किं न वेत्सि यदेकत्र नो विद्यापरिग्रहाय नानादिगन्तवासिनां साहचर्यमासीत् । Act 1.
c6.46
¹ द्विविधाः स्त्रियो ब्रह्मवादिन्यः सद्योद्वाहाश्च । तत्र ब्रह्मवादिनीनामग्नीन्धनं वेदाध्ययनं स्वगृहे च भैक्षचर्येति ।
c6.47
Grown up and educated girls naturally played an important part in the management of their parents' households. The important duty of receiving guests and looking after their comforts was usually entrusted to them. This work solely devolved upon them when their parents were out of station. We find Śakuntalā and Kuntī discharging this function in their fathers' households before their marriage. The latter was quite an adept in this task; she could extort admiration even from such a notoriously irascible guest as Durvāsas, who, being pleased with her attention and devotion, gave her a valuable boon unasked.
c6.48
Our sources enable us to have only a glimpse of the recreations of girls during the Vedic and epic periods. Music and dancing formed the principal indoor games. Public and dramatic concerts were often organised and girls used to go out to see them along with their elders or lovers². In fashionable circles
c6.49
² *Kāmasūtra*, III, 1.
c6.50
Quoted in *VMS*, p. 402.
c6.51
game with the ball (*kandukakrīḍā*) seems to have been the chief out-door physical exercise. Śāntā and Kuntī are, for instance, represented as spending their leisure hours in this game in the Mahābhārata (V, 93, 63 ; III, 112, 16). Players can so regulate this game as to have just the amount of exercise they want. The Rāmāyaṇa represents girls as going in the evening to gardens for playing and talking with their friends (II, 67, 13) ; but this was probably possible only in towns and cities. We have some references to girls going out to swim as well (*Kāmasūtra*, III, 4) ; it is not, however, easy to say what percentage of girls knew this very useful art. Girls used to play a number of courtyard games like ' hide and seek ' and ' run and catch,' which are graphically described in the *Kāmasūtra* (III, 3). These gave very good physical exercise to the players and were well calculated to help their general development and give a suppleness to their limbs. Though not very often mentioned in literature, these games have been very popular with all classes of society since very early times. They were, however, played usually before the marriage.
c6.52
The cause of women’s education suffered a good deal after about 300 B.C. on account of the new fashion of child marriage that then began to come into vogue. It will be shown in the next chapter how on account of a number of causes the marriageable age of girls began to be gradually lowered in successive centuries. By the beginning of the Christian era pre-puberty marriages became the order of the day. Naturally this meant a serious handicap to advanced studies, which could not be obviously finished before the age of 12 or 13, which was the new marriageable age. Even the Initiation ritual (*upanayana saṁskāra*), so necessary for endowing women with the proper Aryan status, was first reduced to a mere formality and then dropped out altogether¹. This put an end to their Vedic education. They became unable to recite even the hymns of daily prayer. It is no wonder that they should have lost the status of the regenerate classes (*dvijas*); like the Śūdras they were in course of time naturally regarded as unfit for reciting or even hearing Vedic prayers. By about the 8th or 9th century A. D. the marriageable age of girls was further lowered to 9 or 10 ; this gave practically a death-blow to any education worth the name. No doubt two or three years were still available , when some primary education could have been imparted, but both the girls and their guardians used to devote their attention during this period more to the problem of marriage than to that of education.
c6.53
¹ See Chap. VII for detailed evidence in this connection.
c6.54
During the first millennium of the Christian era there undoubtedly flourished in Hindu society a few famous lady scholars and poetesses. Among the authors from whose works selections have been made by Hāla in his anthology of Mahārāshṭrī poems (*Gāthā-saptaśatī*), there are seven poetesses, their names being Revā, Rohā, Mādhavī, Anulakshmī, Pahaī, Vaddhavahī, and Śaśiprabhā. Some Sanskrit anthologies also have preserved the memory of a few distinguished poetesses, who appear to have composed poetry of a really high order. Śīlabhaṭṭārikā, we learn, was famous for her easy and graceful style, noted for a harmonious synthesis of sense and sound. Devī was a well-known poetess of Gujarat, who continued to enchant her readers on earth even when she had herself gone to heaven. Vijayāṅkā’s fame was second only to that of Kālidāsa. She seems to have attained a really high position among Sanskrit writers, for a distinguished critic and poet like Rājaśekhara compares her to goddess Sarasvatī herself. Nature was not very kind to this gifted lady because it had chosen to give her a blue-black complexion. Rājaśekhara boldly declares that even masters of Sanskrit verse were clearly in the wrong when they declared that Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning, was all fair in complexion. For in that case, how could poetess Vijayāṅkā, the incarnation of that goddess, have had a complexion resembling the blue, rather than the white lotus¹? This is of course all a play of poetic fancy, but it proves beyond all doubt that Vijayāṅkā was a celebrated poetess. Rājaśekhara’s wife, a Kshatriya by caste, was a good literary critic and poetess. The recently published drama *Kaumudīmahotsava*, whose central theme is an important political revolution at Paṭalīputra, has proceeded from the pen of a lady courtier; it shows that cultured ladies used to take a good deal of interest in the complications of contemporary history and politics. The umpire in the fateful controversy between Śaṅkarāchārya and Maṇḍanamiśra was the latter's wife¹. Obviously she must have been very well grounded in literature, philosophy and theology; otherwise she would not have been accepted as the sole judge in this momentous controversy. Some women were attracted by medical studies also; the majority of these, like our lady doctors to-day, specialised in women's diseases. A treatise on this subject written by a lady doctor, whose name appears as Rūsā in the Arabic garb, was translated in the eighth century a. d. into Arabic at the order of Khalifa Harun². Obviously the most authoritative works on the subject seem to have been written by lady doctors.
c6.55
¹ शब्दार्थयोः समो गुंफः पांचाली वृत्तिरिष्यते । शीलभट्टारिकावाचि बाणोक्तिषु च या सदा ॥ सूक्तीनां स्मरकेलीनां कलानां च विलासभूः । प्रभुर्देवी कवी लाटी गतापि हृदि तिष्ठति ॥ सरस्वतीव कर्णाटी विजयांका जयत्यसौ । या वैदर्भंगिरां वासः कालिदासादनन्तरम् ॥ नीलोत्पलदलश्यामां विजयांकामजानता । वृथैव दण्डिनाप्युक्तं सर्वशुक्ला सरस्वती ॥ These verses are attributed to Rājaśekhara in the *Sūktimuktāvalī*.
c6.56
¹ विधाय भार्या विदुषीं सदस्यां विधीयतां वादकथा सुधीन्द्र ॥ *Saṅkaradigvijaya*, VIII. 51.
c6.57
² Nadvi, *Arab aur Bhārat ke Sambandha*, p. 122.
c6.58
Unfortunately we do not know anything about the status and family circumstances of the above lady poets, philosophers and doctors. Very probably some of them belonged to rich and cultured families, which could make special arrangements for girls' education even after their marriage, and some to Kshatriya circles, where the custom of child marriage did not take root for a long time even after it had become well established in the rest of society. In the 9th century a. d., higher education of women was confined to royal, official, rich and well-to-do families, and to the class of dancing girls¹. It may be pointed out that most of the heroines of Sanskrit dramas written in this period, who are represented as fairly educated, belong to the classes mentioned above.
c6.59
¹ पुरुषवद्योषितोपि कवीभवेयुः । श्रूयन्ते दृश्यन्ते च राजपुत्र्यो महामात्रदुहितरो गणिकाः कौटुम्बिकभार्याश्च शास्त्रप्रहितबुद्धयः कवयश्च । *Kāvyamīmānsā*, p. 53.
c6.60
Cultured and rich families are naturally few in society. They had sufficient resources to enable them to employ special teachers like Bṛihannaḍā, Gaṇadāsa and Haradatta for their daughters' education. Ordinary families, however, could not afford to do this and their daughters, who had to be married at this time at about the age of 10 or 11, could therefore hardly receive any education. Asahāya, a commentator on *Nāradasmṛiti* who flourished in the 8th century A. D, justifies the theory of the tutelage of women on the ground that their intellect is not developed like that of men on account of their not having the benefit of proper training and education². This observation makes it clear that education had become fairly rare among women in general in the 8th century A. D. It is hazardous to make any statement about the exact extent of literacy among women at about 1000 A. D., for we have no data like modern census reports to guide us. Literacy among men at this time was about 30 per cent.³; that among women could not have very probably been more than 10 per cent.
c6.61
² शास्त्राध्ययनानधिकारित्वात् शास्त्रमात्रोपजीविधर्माधर्मज्ञानाभावादस्वातंत्र्यम् । On *Nāradasmṛiti*, X 30.
c6.62
³ Altekar, *Education in Ancient India*, pp. 213-4.
c6.63
The cultivation of fine arts like music, dancing and painting was encouraged in the case of girls since very early times. Musical recitation of the Sāma hymns was originally the special function of ladies¹. It is clear that they must be specialising in music in the early Vedic period; otherwise this important duty would not have been assigned to them. Some legends in the Vedic literature make caustic references to women's partiality to music. Once Devas and Asuras both wanted to win over the Goddess of Speech; gods succeeded in their effort because they were clever enough to realise that the best way to achieve their object was to sing and dance before her. The author of the legend cannot resist the temptation of observing that women can be easily won over by one who sings melodiously and dances gracefully before them (*Ś. Br.*, III, 2, 4, 6).
c6.64
¹ पत्नीकर्मैव वै तेऽत्र कुर्वन्ति यदुगातारः। *Ś. Br.*, XIV, 3, 1, 35.
c6.65
In the post-Vedic period also society went on encouraging music and dancing in the case of girls. Among the arts which ladies in cultured families were expected to cultivate, the *Kāmasūtra* assigns the most prominent place to dancing and music, both vocal and instrumental (1,3,16). Other arts which they were recommended to master were painting, gardening, garland-making, toy-making, house decorations etc. (*Ibid*, 1, 3, 1). Heroines of Sanskrit dramas, written during the first millennium of the Christian era, are well versed in most of these arts. Not infrequently, maidens used to give a dance in the court before a select audience without incurring thereby any social opprobrium¹. The dance teacher was a regular officer in the royal court. It is clear that higher sections of society used to take all possible care to develop the æsthetic sense of girls.
c6.66
¹ Stenzler, *Ocean of Stories*, IX, p. xiv.
c6.67
Girls in ruling families used to receive some military and administrative training also. If such were not the case dowager queens like Nayanikā of the Sātavāhana dynasty (2nd century B. C.), Prabhāvatī Guptā of the Vākāṭaka family (4th century A. D.), Vijayabhaṭṭārikā of the Chālukya house (7th century A. D.) and Sugandhā and Diddā of Kashmir (10th century A. D.) could not have successfully administered extensive kingdoms during the minority of their sons. It will be shown in chapter VI that in the Chālukya administration (*c.* 980-1160 A. D.), queen governors and officers were quite common. The due discharge of these administrative duties presupposed a good training on proper lines. In ordinary Kshatriya families ladies used to receive a fairly good amount of military training. Lady guards of kings, referred to in dramas, belonged to this class ; they were usually experts in the use of the bow and the sword. South Indian inscriptions of the medieval period disclose the existence of many Kshatriya ladies defending their hearths and homes in times of danger. Ladies from Karnatak seem to have led the way in this matter. A heroine from Mysore is known to have died in a village affray at Siddhanhalli in 1041 A. D. In 1264 A. D. another Karnatak heroine was honoured by the government of the day with the reward of a nose jewel in recognition of her bravery in overpowering a dacoit. A Nilgund inscription records a military expedition led by a feudatory queen. In 1446 a Mysore heroine died in Shikoga Taluka fighting to avenge the murder of her father¹.
c6.68
¹ See *S. I. E. R.*, for 1921, No. 73; *E. C.*, I, No. 75, *A. S. R.*, for 1928-9, p. 117, *E.C.* Vol. VII, Shikarpur No. 2.
c6.69
It is quite well known that Rajput princesses were adepts in the use of the sword and the spear. They could lead the armies and direct the government in the hour of need. Kūrmādevī, a queen of king Sāmarasī, took over the administration of her kingdom on her husband's death and repulsed the attacks of Kutub-ud-Din. Javāhirdevī, a queen of king Saṅgā, died fighting at the head of her army, while defending Chitor after her husband's death. Rajput history is full of such instances and they need not be all enumerated here.
c6.70
This tradition of giving military training to girls continued in the Maratha royal families, which were ruling over a considerable part of India during the 17th and 18th centuries. Rani Bhīmābāī, the daughter of Yeshwantrao Holkar, told Sir John Malcolm that it was an incumbent duty on a Maratha princess to lead her troops in person when there was no husband or son to do so. Tārābāī, the founder of Kolhapur state, used to lead her army and direct her government. The example of queen Lakshmībāī of Jhansi, who excited the admiration even of her opponents by her remarkable bravery and sound generalship, is well known. The late princess Kamalābāī Scindia, the sister of the present Maharaja of Gwalior, was an adept in all military excercises. Her father was but carrying out the old Maratha tradition when he laid down detailed directions in his will in this connection.
c6.71
Could women become economically independent as a result of their training? Those who followed the medical or the teaching line could of course become economically self-sufficient. The same was the case with singers and dancers. For ordinary women spinning and weaving afforded a good opening in times of difficulty. This was a very important and prosperous industry in India down to 1850 A. D. It was organised and conducted mainly as a cottage industry, and so it afforded good scope to women in financial distress. In early Buddhist literature ( *c.* 300 B. C. ), we come across ladies assuring their dying husbands that they need not worry about the financial future of their families¹; for they could earn the necessary income by spinning and weaving cotton and woollen yarn and piece-goods. The *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya lays down that the state should provide special facilities to destitute women to enable them to earn a living by spinning². From medieval commentators we learn that spinning continued to be the mainstay of poor widows at that time as well³. It may be pointed out that cloth was much costlier in ancient and medieval India than what it is to-day; Indian fabrics were besides in great demand throughout the three continents down to the beginning of the last century¹. Women in distress, who resorted to spinning as a means of maintenance, had therefore ample scope for work and got fair wages.
c6.72
¹ कुसलाहं गहपति कप्पासंत कंतितुं वेणिमोलिक्खितुं सक्काहं गहपति तवच्चयेन दारके पोसितुम् । *Ang. Ni.*, III, p. 293.
c6.73
² याश्चानिष्कासिन्यः प्रोषितविधवा न्यंकाः कन्यका वा आत्मानं बिभृयुः ताः सोपग्रहं (कर्तन)कर्म कारयितव्याः । *Arthaśāstra*, II, 23.
c6.74
³ मृतपतिकाया अनपत्याया असति भर्तृधनादौ दायिके च कर्तनादिना केनचिदुपायेन जीवन्त्याः ... । Medhātithi on *Manu*, V, 157.
c6.75
¹ Moreland, *India at the Death of Akbar*, p. 179.
c6.76
Let us now survey the state of female education during the last 700 years. During the Muslim rule the percentage of literacy among Hindu women went further down with a great rapidity. Rich and cultured families were as a rule ruined by the new political revolution; they were no longer in a position to make special arrangements for the education of their daughters. Some new Hindu families also no doubt rose to eminence with the rise of Islam, but their number was generally small and they did not, as a rule, possess sufficient culture to induce them to take active steps for the fostering of education among the girls of their households. The daughters in Rajput and Nair families could read and write; the same was the case with Jain nuns, who were generally in a position to read their own scriptures. These, however, were exceptional cases. Ordinarily only prostitutes and dancing girls could read and write. The decline of literacy among women was so marked and rapid that by the beginning of the 19th century hardly one woman in a hundred could read in Madras and Malva. In the former province in 1826 A. D. only 4,023 girls were attending schools as against 1,57,664 boys. According to the then population of the presidency the percentage¹ of girls receiving some kind of education was only ½. It may, therefore, be stated that at the advent of the British rule female education had practically disappeared from Hindu community. Nay, it was regarded as a source of moral danger, if not as an actual vice, since only dancing girls could normally read and write. In their families the old tradition to teach reading and writing to the new generation was continued.
c6.77
¹ *Indian Education Commission, 1882; Report of the Madras Provincial Committee*, p. 5.
c6.78
The cultivation of the fine arts also declined during this period. Music teachers were usually men not very famous for high character, and Hindu families were not rich enough to engage them. By the beginning of the 19th century singing, dancing and writing were regarded as achievements fit only for the class of dancing girls. Ladies of orthodox families would have been shocked if a report had spread that they were acquainted with any of the above mentioned arts. Hindu women during the last millennium were usually unlettered, but they could not be described as uncultured. In fact, books being rare and costly, traditional wisdom and culture could be learnt more easily from the lips of a preacher than from the pages of a manuscript. Every village had its own religious teacher (*purāṇika*), whose vernacular discourses on religion, philosophy and culture were listened to with wrapt attention by all the matrons of the village. Though unlettered, they thus became better and more faithful custodians of ancient traditions and culture than even literate men.
c6.79
We have seen above that the literacy among Hindu women had reached its nadir by about 1850 a.d. Subsequent to the assumption of the Indian administration by the British Crown, Government began to take some steps for the promotion of education among girls. Progress during the first forty years was very very slow. By the end of the last century, however, public opinion also began to support its cause, mainly owing to its vigorous championship by the school of social reform. Not much progress, however, was made for a long time, primarily because girls were married at the age of 9 or 10. Their education could thus continue only for three or four years, as it had to be suspended after marriage. The terrible havoc caused by the plague at the beginning of the present century tended to raise the marriageable age of girls to 12 or 13. Among the educated middle classes in cities it has now advanced to 16 or 17, chiefly owing to the influence of economic factors. In 1930, a legislation was also passed fixing 14 as the minimum age for the marriage of girls.
c6.80
The raising of the marriageable age of girls has helped the cause of the female education in a remarkable degree. We have seen above that the lowering of that age to 9 or 10 by the 8th or 9th century a. d. was the main cause of the decline of education among girls. As this cause is being now gradually removed, we may expect a corresponding advance in the progress of female education. Economic conditions also are helping its spread. Services of educated women are still in great demand ; this circumstance also is helping the growth of female education. An idea of the progress made by female education during the last ten years can be gathered from the fact that while the number of girl scholars was 1,230,698 in 1924-25, it rose to 2,890,246 in 1934-35. Much leeway, however has yet to be made ; only 16.5 per cent. of the girls of the school going age are attending schools, and of these only 13 per cent. reach the 4th class. The ratio¹ of literate women to men is 1 : 4.
c6.81
¹ Report of the Educational Commissoner with the Government of India on the Progress of Girls' Education for the year 1934-5 (Published in April, 1937).
c6.82
While the female education is still in its infancy, a serious effort should be made to solve some of its complex problems. Fortunately these do not exist as far as primary education is concerned ; the knowledge of the three R's and of elementary history, geography and drawing is as much necessary for boys as it is for girls. Marriage also does not now interrupt the course of primary education.
c6.83
As far as the secondary and college education is concerned, we have to solve two thorny and difficult problems. The first is about co-education and the second is about the curriculum. The exigencies of the situation have in a way forced us to reconcile ourselves to co-education, and therefore to a common curriculum. Outside big cities, there are few schools and colleges intended for girls, and so guardians are practically forced to send their daughters to institutions primarily intended for boys. The curriculum also is therefore a more or less common one. Even when there are special schools and colleges for girls, they usually follow the course laid down for boys. For, the institutions have to send their students for examinations to universities, which have so far, with rare exceptions, failed to introduce a different curriculum for lady students.
c6.84
The difficulty in answering the question as to whether there should be a different curriculum for girls in high schools and colleges primarily arises from the fact that neither the scholars nor their guardians know definitely at the outset whether the students concerned are going to be housewives or are going to follow a career. In the case of a girl scholar intending to follow the latter alternative, it is clear that she will have to receive the same education as the boy student. A woman who wants to become a pleader or a doctor must obviously get the same education which a male pleader or doctor receives.
c6.85
The number of women who will be thus going in purely for a career will, however, not be a large one. They should attend men's colleges and follow a common curriculum. The vast majority of girl scholars, however, will eventually be destined to become housewives, and schools and colleges for girls should be primarily intended to meet their needs with a special curriculum of their own. The education imparted in them should be such as will make the recepients efficient wives and mothers, and also enable them to become earning members of their families in their spare time, or in case of need and adversity.
c6.86
In Hindu society at present, normally speaking, the marriage of a girl cannot be conveniently postponed to beyond the age of 18. We should, therefore, so draft the courses of female education that they should be over before that time. Primary education should take four years and be over at the age of 9. The secondary course should extend over six years only; if we adopt the mother tongue as the medium of instruction and slightly reduce the curricula in subjects like geography, mathematics and history, it will be possible to finish the course in six years' time. Hygiene, nursing, domestic science, music, sewing, knitting and house-decorations should figure prominently in the school curriculum as subjects alternative with mathematics, geography and the second language. The secondary course would be over at the age of 15. It should be followed by a college course extending over three years, which would be thus completed when the scholar is about 18. It will be easy to frame three years' courses in subjects like (A) Arts and Teaching, (B) Domestic science and Midwifery, (C) Music, Painting, and Photography, (D) Tailoring and Embroidery, which will be self-sufficient, and enable girl scholars not only to become efficient and cultured housewives but also to earn some money both in their spare time and in the case of need. In the last three groups there should be included a paper on Literature or History as well. Courses in Groups A and B will be obviously below the B. A., the B. T., or the M. B. B. S. standards. Those ladies, however, who have taken a diploma in these subjects, should be allowed to appear as private candidates for the B. A., B. T., and Intermediate M. B. B. S. examinations. This would remove the difficulty in the way of a girl scholar who has joined the women’s college, but who eventually desires to devote a few more years to education in order to attain the highest efficiency in her subject. The recasting of secondary and higher education of girls on the above lines would remove the defects in the present system and cater for the needs both of those who want to settle down in family life, as also of those who want to follow a career. It is of course true that a cut in the normal curriculum has been suggested in the courses of girls, but that is necessary in order to equip them for their normal functions of intelligent and efficient wives and mothers. As the matters stand to-day, girls have to pass the same examinations as boys and to learn house-keeping at home as well, all the while having less physical strength than their brothers. This certainly puts too much strain upon them and is injurious to the future well-being of the race.