The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c8.40

c8.40

The wife on her part had corresponding duties and obligations. She was to try her utmost to promote her husband's happiness⁴. Neither the father nor the mother, neither a son nor a friend, can do for a woman what a husband will. The help these can give is limited, the help the husband can offer is unlimited⁵. Her real happiness is centred in her husband⁶. She must therefore follow him in adversity as well as in prosperity. Above all, she must be true to him in her marriage vows and lead the life of an ideal *pativratā*. The household management is primarily her duty, to be discharged in consultation with her husband¹. She is to frame a proper annual budget and regulate the daily expenditure according to it. If the husband is spendthrift, it is her duty to put a gentle check on his extravagence. She is to make purchases when provisions are cheap, and to store them properly for consumption throughout the year. She is to be the paymaster of the household. She is to look after the general needs and comforts of the servants by giving them old clothes and articles. General supervision over cattle and agriculture comes within her jurisdiction, if the family is an agricultural one. If it is poor, she is to help her husband by taking her own share in the manual labour of the household management. Spinning, weaving and rope-making are to occupy her spare time. If the family is well-to-do, knitting, embroidery, kitchen-garden, and household decorations are to engage her leisure hours. If the husband is away, she is to shoulder the whole responsibility of the household, and discharge it with due regard to any instructions that he may have left behind. In times of difficulty, she is to be her husband’s counsellor; if he is unable or unwilling to follow the plain path of duty, she is to bring him round by sweet yet effective words². That Hindu wives could do this successfully would be clear from the example of Draupadī, who won over Dharma to her own views by her clever and persuasive eloquence. Several Rajput ladies have emulated her example in the medieval period.