The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c8.15

c8.15

According to the Avesta a good wife is one, who is obedient to her husband. The Vedic marriage ritual, however, does not enjoin the duty of obedience upon the wife. Both parties take the same vows. The original Christian marriage ritual, it is interesting to note, specifically enjoined the duty of obedience upon the wife. She took the oath that she would *love and obey* her husband till the death, while the latter merely averred that he would *love and cherish* her. This deliberate differentiation in oath was a natural corollary of the theory adumbrated in Paul, V, 22, that the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the the head of the Church. It is interesting to note that even in 1928 A. D., the British Parliament refused to sanction the proposal to delete the reference to obedience from the wife's oath. The Church of England, however, has in a way sanctioned the new proposal by deciding to take no action against a clergyman administering the new oath, requiring both the husband and the wife to love and cherish each other. The theory of the wife's subordination is thus dying very slowly even in the west.