The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c8.82

c8.82

Other Smṛiti writers, however, have taken quite a different stand. They have propounded the astounding doctrine that the husband has the right to discard his wife any moment she proves herself disagreeable to him². This is a monstrous principle and we feel pained to find that some of our Smṛiti writers should have ever propounded it. This principle, along with the lowering of the marriageable age of girls, produced disastrous consequences for the happiness of women. In spite of their anxiety to do everything to please their husbands, devoted wives began to be sometimes superseded, even when had given birth to sons. Smṛitis have no doubt laid down that such wives should be given a maintenance. It was not, however, easy for them to live in a kind of judicial separation; for a section of the public was