The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c8.14

c8.14

More vital for the wife's happiness is the treatment which she receives from her husband. Since Indo-Iranian times the husband and the wife were regarded as the joint-owners of the household. The Vedic word for the couple, *dampatī*, etymologically means the joint owners of the house. The Avesta (Yashṭa, 15, 4) describes the husband and the wife as *nmāno paiti* and *nmāno pathnī*, showing thereby that they were equal partners and joint owners of the common household. In actual practice, however, joint government or dyarchy, with absolutely equal rights and privileges to either half, is an impossibility in all spheres of life. Domestic government is no exception to this rule. Discord, disorder and deadlocks will arise in domestic management on some occasions if the husband and the wife are each allowed an absolutely equal power, and happen to possess conflicting and opposing views. To resolve these deadlocks, ultimate supreme authority has to be given to one of the two parties, and in patriarchal societies it is naturally the husband who is invested with it. In India also the case was the same. In the Hindu household the husband is the senior partner and the wife is under his general guidance.