The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s6.5

c2.s6.5

We have indeed a number of pretty sentiments in regard to woman, especially in regard to her purity, that seem to place her in another light; and when we read that ‘a woman’s mouth is always pure,’ or that ‘three things do not become impure, women, gems, and water’ (xii. 165. 32; M. v. 130), we are tempted to believe that an ideal position of women has been thus early reached. No greater mistake is possible. The only ideal of the early Hindu in this regard was of practical convenience and sensual gratification. The proverbs quoted above are dry ceremonial statutes; most things render a man at certain times impure, as the sight of a dog, a tear, etc.; but, for the sake of convenience, the rule requiring him to rinse the mouth or bathe on thus becoming impure is done away with in the cases cited; and the whole force of the pretty saying is destroyed when we consider that the author is far from meaning women in general in this verse. He means only women of good caste. A woman of degraded caste was *ipso facto* impure, and to taste of her mouth was to render one’s self liable to the severest penance.*