The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s6.73

c2.s6.73

In the fifth century B. C., at the hands of the Buddhists, women became to a great extent emancipated. Then follows the era of enlightened women; the rise of the nunneries; the freedom from restraint—to be lost with the rise of Brahmanism again, though occasional glimpses show us in the period of our middle ages women that were esteemed as poets and even as lawyers: as witness the work on law by one Lakṣmīdevī, of whom Colebrooke speaks, and the women poets in the Saduktikarṇāmṛtam (composed 1205 A. D.).*