War in Ancient India c5.s1.34

c5.s1.34

28 आत्माभिप्रेतमुत्सृज्य कन्याभिप्रेत एव यः । अभिप्रेता च या यस्य तस्मै देया युधिष्ठिर ॥ गान्धर्वमिति तं धर्मं प्राहुर्वेदविदो जनाः ॥ superior to the other.²⁹ To whatever caste she belonged, it was the injunction of the scriptures that ‘the husband should regard his wife as an acquisition due to his own pristine karma or to what has been ordained by God.’³⁰ This injunction falsifies the statement often made now-a-days that in ancient India women always held an inferior position in the social scale. The ancient Indian easily realized that his wife was his partner in weal or woe, and honoured her as the very queen of his home. Does not Manu say: “Where women are not honoured, there cannot be a proper home”? ³¹