The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s7.14

c7.s7.14

At about the 5th century B. C. a wave of asceticism passed over Hindu society. Though there was a good deal of opposition to it, the ideal of renunciation and puritanism, which it assiduously advocated, became eventually very well grounded in society by about the beginning of the Christian era. As one of its natural consequences society began to hold that a girl could be given in marriage only once. To divorce one husband and to marry another, because the marital life was not happy, began to appear as a grossly sensual procedure.