The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c6.32

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).