The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c8.88

c8.88

Owing to the growing helplessness of women on account of their illiteracy and ignorance, they became easier prey to ill-treatment and tyranny. The disappearance of divorce, permitted by earlier writers under certain circumstances, further embittered their life. We have seen above (*ante*, p. 100), how one woman refused to go to live with her husband on learning that he had contracted a second marriage during her absence, and how she eventually married a different person. Now things had changed completely. Manu no doubt states that the husband should contract a second marriage only with the consent of the first wife, but this permission was merely a formal affair. If the wife refused to give it, the husband could still carry out his plan of the second marriage. If after that event a self-respecting wife found it impossible to live with her husband, and proceeded to leave his household, she was to be