History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.s2.69

v2.c28.s2.69

We must now turn to the position of women in general and wives in particular and the estimate of their character and worth made by ancient India. It has already been seen (p. 428) how the wife was looked upon as half of the husband, how in Vedic times women composed hymns and learnt the Vedas and how they co-operated with their husbands in all religious acts. On the whole their social position was much better (except as to rights of property) than what it became in later times. But even in the Vedic times there was an under-current of opinion which was hostile to women, sneered at them and treated them with scorn. Some of the passages from Vedic and classical Sanskrit literature eulogising women and the wife have been set out above (pp. 428ff). The passages noted below may be read in this connection.¹³³⁹ Vide Baud. Dh. S. II. 2. 63-64, Manu III. 55-62, Yāj. I. 71, 74, 78, 82, Vas. Dh. S. 28. 1-9, Atri vv. 140-141 and 193-198, Ādiparva 74. 140-152, Śāntiparva 144. 6 and 12-17, Anuśāsana 46, Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa 21. 69-76. The Kāmasūtra III. 2 says that women are like flowers (kusumasadharmāṇo hi yoṣitaḥ). It has been seen (pp. 146-147) how way was to be made by all for the bride and the pregnant woman and it will be shown that the general opinion was that no woman was to be killed on any account (with one or two exceptions¹³⁴⁰ in ancient writers). Some of the smṛtikāras like Atri and Devala were so liberal as to say that women who had intercourse with one not of the same caste or who had conceived by such intercourse did not become outcasts, but only impure till delivery or next period when they became pure again and could be associated with, the child born of the adulterous connection being handed over to some one else for being brought up.¹³⁴¹ If a woman was raped she was not to be abandoned, but she became impure only till her next period (Atri 197-198) and Devala (48-49) prescribes purifications for a woman raped by *mlecchas* and conceiving thereby. In the Śāntiparva 267. 38 it is said that it is not the woman who is at fault, but it is the man who is at fault (when the woman goes astray). In the Varuṇapraghāsa¹³⁴² (one of the cāturmāsyas) the sacrificer's wife had to confess if she had a lover and even when she confessed she was allowed to co-operate with her husband in the sacrifice. Vide Tai. Br. I. 6. 5, Śat. Br. II. 5. 2. 20, Kātyāyana Śr. V. 5. 6-10.