The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s6.9

c2.s6.9

Interesting is our next general problem: what character did the Hindus assign to their women? Separate here tale and proverb. For no more tender and delicate types of women are to be found than Sāvitrī and Sītā (I have not so high an opinion of the much-vaunted Damayantī), and to have portrayed such characters is a vindication of the possibility of their historic existence. But on the other hand we have misogynistic sayings enough to show a popular disdain of woman. Only one circumstance is worthy of note: viz., that those who most indulge in these remarks have (in India) least cause to make them. ‘A woman’s nature is always unsteadfast’—this truth is uttered by the scapegrace Nala, who gambled away his kingdom, and ran away from the wife that remained steadfast to the end.§ Part of the wisdom imparted to another king that gambled away his wife is: ‘woman is the root of all evil, for women are always light-minded;’‖ and the hardest blow is given to their virtue in the innuendo that even women of good family are envious of common prostitutes, wishing for the clothes and adornment that fall to the lot of the latter (xiii. 38.