History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.s2.86

v2.c28.s2.86

There are some writers who even in ancient times could not bear the undeserved censure of women and most vigorously protested against the injustice of these accusations. Varāhamihira (6th century A. D.) in his Bṛhat-Saṁhitā chap. 74 (ed. by Kern) makes a spirited defence of women and eulogises them highly. He first says that on women depend *dharma* and *artha* and from them man derives the pleasures of sense and the blessing of sons, that they are the Lakṣmī (goddess of Prosperity) of the house and should be always given honour and wealth. He then condemns those who following the path of asceticism and other-worldliness proclaim the demerits of women and are silent about their virtues and pertinently asks¹³⁵³ 'tell me truly, what faults attributed to women have not been also practised by men? Men in their audacity treat women with contempt, but they really possess more virtues (than men).' He then cites the dicta of Manu in support (verses 7-10). "One's mother or one's wife is a woman; men owe their birth to women; O ungrateful wretches, how can happiness be your lot when you condemn them? The śāstras declare that both husband and wife are equally sinful if they prove faithless to the marriage vow; men care very little for that śāstra (while women do care); therefore women are superior to men. Oh! how great is the audacity of wicked men who heap abuse on women that are pure and blameless, like robbers who while themselves stealing raise a hue and cry 'stop, O thief!.' Man in privacy utters words of cajolry to woman, but there are no such words after the woman dies; while women, in gratitude, clasp the corpses of their husbands and enter the fire." It may be said that, barring great poets like Kālidāsa,¹³⁵⁴ Bāṇa and Bhavabhūti, in the classical period Varāhamihira's was rather a solitary voice raised in defence of women and in the appreciation of their worth.