Hindu Women
The Position of HINDU Women 3,000 BC – 2,000 AD
- From
Prehistoric Times to the Present Day – (1956)
Dr. A.S. Altekar,
M.A., LL.B., D.Litt. University Professor and Head of the Department of Ancient
Indian History and Culture, Patna University, and Hon. director, K.P. Jayasval,
Research Institute, Patna.
[Excerpt from the
concluding Chapter XII – "Retrospect and Prospect"]
Contents
The Rigvedic Age (1,500 – 1,500 BC)
The Age of the Later Samhitas, Brahmanas
and Upanishads (1,500 – 500 BC)
Religious Influences
in Favor of Women
The Age of the Sutras, the Epics and the Early Smritis (500 BC – 500
AD)
Early Marriages
Discourage Education
Adverse
Influence of Ascetic Philosophy
The Age of Later Smritis, Commentators and
Digest-writers (500 AD – 1,800 AD)
Women
in Prehistoric Society
In communities that
have not yet emerged from barbarism, there hardly exist any checks on the
tyranny of man over woman. Ill-usage, underfeeding and overworking are pushed
to the greatest limit, compatible with the preservation of the race. Women are
divorced, abandoned, sold or killed at the mere whim of men. They have to carry
about children, and also serve as beasts of burden, when the tribe moves from
one place to another. The treatment thus meted out to them need not cause any surprise;
in primitive life the muscle was an indispensable element in success and the
man was stronger in it than the woman.
Women once enjoyed
considerable freedom and privileges in the spheres of family, religion and
public life; but as centuries rolled on, the situation went on changing
adversely. On the other hand we found that the proprietary rights went on
gradually expanding in spite of the growing tendency to regard women as unfit
for independence.
It will be
convenient to divide the period we have to survey into four divisions:
The
Age of the Rigveda, c. 2,500 - c. 1,500 BC
The
Age of the Later Samhitas, Brahmanas and Upanishads, c.1,500 BC - c. 500 BC
The
Age of the Sutras, Epics and Early Smritis, c. 500 BC - c. 500 AD
The
Age of Later Smritis, Commentators and Digest Writers, c. 500 AD -
c. 1,800 AD
The
Rigvedic Age (1,500 – 1,500 BC)
On the whole the
position of women was fairly satisfactory in the Vedic age. Ordinarily grils were
no doubt less welcome than boys, but we must add that there were also some
parents in society who would perform special religious rituals for the good
luck of getting learned and capable daughters. Girls were educated like boys
and had to pass through a period of Brahmacarya [celibate student life]. Many
of them used to become distinguished poetesses, and the poems of some of them
have been honoured by their inclusion in the canonical literature. The
marriages of girls used to take place at a fairly advanced age, the normal time
being the age of 16 or 17. Educated brides of this age had naturally an
effective voice in the selection of their partners in life. Very often there
were love marriages, which were later blessed by parents. There was no seclusion
of women; they used to move freely in society often even in the company of
their lovers. In social and religious gatherings they occupied a prominent
position. Women had an absolute equality with men in the eye of religion; they
could perform sacrifices independently and were not regarded as an impediment
in religious pursuits. Marriage in fact was a religious necessity to both the
man and the woman; neither could reach heaven without being accompanied by his
duly married consort. The position of the wife was an honoured one in the
family. In theory she was the joint owner of the household with her husband,
though in actual practice, she was the subordinate partner. In rich and royal
families polygamy prevailed to some extent, but ordinarily monogamy was the
rule. If a wife had the misfortune to be widowed, she had not to ascend her
husband's funeral pyre. The Sati custom was not in vogue at all; the widow
could, if she liked, contract another marriage, either regularly or under the
custom of Niyoga [marrying the husbands brother]. The main disabilities from
which women suffered in this age, as well as in the next one, were proprietary
ones. They could hold or inherit no property.
The position of
women on the whole was fairly satisfactory. In the Vedic literature there are
no doubt a few observations like 'Women have a fickle mind', 'Women can be
easily won over by one who is handsome and can sing and dance well'. They,
however, reflect the light-hearted cynicism of some poets, and do not embody
the considered views of the leaders of society. The community as a whole was
showing proper concern and respect for women, allowing them considerable
freedom in the different activities of the social and political life.
The
Age of the Later Samhitas, Brahmanas and Upanishads (1,500 – 500 BC)
The changes which
took place during this period in the position of women were gradual. Their
proprietary rights continued to be unrecognised, the only exception being in
favour of marriage gifts of moveable property. In the higher sections of
society the Sacred Initiation (upanayana) of girls was common, and they
subsequently used to go through a course of education. Some of them used to
attain distinction in the realm of theology and philosophy, and a considerable
number of women used to follow the teaching career. There was, however, a
gradual decline in female education as the period advanced. The system of
sending out girls to famous teachers or centres of education came to be
discouraged; it was laid down that only near relations like the father, the
brother or the uncle should teach them at home. Naturally therefore, religious
and secular training became possible only in the case of the girls of rich and
cultured families. As a consequence there arose a tendency to curtail the religious
rights and privileges of the average woman; many functions in the sacrifice,
which formerly could be performed by the wife alone now came to be assigned to
male substitutes. The marriage ideals and the mutual relations and rights of
the parties continued to be more or less the same as they were in the earlier
age.
The relatively more
satisfactory position of women in the two epochs we have just surveyed was due,
partly to political and partly to religious causes. As a rule in a community,
which is civilised and is moving in search of pastures fresh and new, women
occupy an honorable position. Men are mostly engrossed in military or
semi-military activities, and they have to rely to a very great degree on the
help and co-operation of women in the normal spheres and activities of family
life. Under such circumstances women can clearly and convincingly demonstrate
to men that they are not parasites, but very useful members of society, whose
co-operation is very valuable in securing prosperity in peace and victory in
war.
It would appear that
the general freedom and better status which women enjoyed in the Vedic age were
largely due to men being engrossed in the work of conquest and consolidation.
Women used to take an active part in agriculture, and the manufacture of cloth,
bows, arrows and other war material. They were thus useful members of society,
and could not be therefore treated with an air of patronage or contempt.
The exigencies of
the political situation in the Vedic period were responsible for the abolition
of the prehistoric Sati custom and the sanctioning of Niyoga and remarriage.
Vedic chiefs were anxious for heroes, more heroes, and still more heroes. The
gospel they preached to the householder was not of eight sons of the later
days, but of ten.
Religious influences in favor of women
Another
factor responsible for the relatively satisfactory position of women was the
influence of religion. Asceticism was at a discount in the Vedic age. Maidens
and bachelors had no admission to heaven; gods accepted no oblations offered by
the unmarried. It was essential to offer the ordained sacrifices to gods for
procuring happiness and prosperity both here and hereafter, and they could be
properly performed by the husband and the wife officiating together. Wife was
not an impediment but an absolute necessity in the religious service. This
circumstance naturally helped to raise her status. To enable her to discharge
her religious duties properly, it was necessary to ordain that her upanayana
[brahminical initiation] should be duly performed; this ensured a proper
training and education to girls. It required at least half a dozen years to
complete the educational course; that naturally rendered early marriages
impracticable. When girls were properly educated and married at the mature age
of 16 or 17, a considerable regard had naturally to be shown to their own likes
and dislikes at the time of the marriage. Love marriages were also inevitable
when girls remained unmarried to that advanced age and were moving freely in
society.
The Age of the Sutras, the Epics and the Early Smritis (500 BC – 500 AD)
[Ramayana,
Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana]
The position of
women deteriorated considerably in this period, and its causes may be conveniently
discussed here. Some centuries before the beginning of this period, the Aryan
rule had become well established over the greater part of India. The Aryan
conquest of the indigenous population and its loose incorporation in the social
structure of the victors as members of the fourth Sudra [laborer] class, had
given rise to a huge population of a semi-servile status. We saw that the
introduction of slavery revolutionised the position of women in the classical
period of Greek history; they became parasites and lost the esteem of society.
The same happened in India, when a definite semi-servile status came to be
assigned to the Sudra class within Hindu society, service of the Aryan
conquerors being its only and definite duty. Women, however, did not suffer
merely because they ceased to be productive members of society. A greater
calamity awaited them from the presence of Sudra women. When the Aryans reached
the upper Gangetic plain, they found that the indigenous civilisation there was
too deep-rooted to be completely wiped out by them. They had to remain content
merely with imposing their sovereignty, very often merely a nominal one, over
the original inhabitants, variously described as Dasas [servants], Sudras
[laborers], or Nagas [snakes]. When the two races proceeded to live together
peacefully, inter-marriages became inevitable. In the age of the Rigveda, we do
not come across any cases of Arya Sudra marriages. The Brahmanas and the epics,
however, supply ample evidence to show that the Aryan chiefs were freely
marrying non-Aryan princesses in the later period. Arjuna married Udipi, a Naga
princess-regent. Bhima married Hidimba, a sister of a Rakshasa [demon] chief.
The sage Kavasha, who plays an important part in the Aitareda Brahmana, was the
son of a slave girl. These examples are only typical and would show that in the
concluding half of the later Samhita period (c.1000 BC to c. 500 BC) the
marriages of Aryan men with non-Aryan [commoner] women were becoming common. It
is important to note that the early Dharmasastra [law] writers have no
objection to an Aryan marrying a Sudra woman, provided he had another Aryan
wife; it is only later writers who proceed to interdict such a procedure with a
great vehemence (Manu, III, 14,16).
Non-Aryan Wifes
The introduction of
the non-Aryan wife into the Aryan household is the key to the general
deterioration of the position of women, that gradually and imperceptibly
started at about 1,000 BC, and became quite marked in about 500 years. The
non-Aryan wife with her ignorance of Sanskrit language and Hindu religion could
obviously not enjoy the same religious privileges as the Aryan consort. This
must have naturally led to grave mistakes and anomalies in the performance of
the ritual, which must have shocked orthodox priests. 'The black non-Aryan wife
may be her husband's associate in pleasure, but not in religious rituals' say
several authorities (D.S. Visnu, ch. 26; Vasistha Dharmasutra, XVIII,
17).
How then was the
situation to be retrieved? Eventually it was felt that the object could be
gained by declaring the whole class of women to be ineligible for Vedic studies
and religious duties. There would then be no question of rejecting admission to
a non-Aryan wife and granting it to an Aryan one, all would be ineligible and
none need be offended. It is Aitisayana who is seen advocating this view by
about 200 BC.
Early Marriages Discourage
Education
The growing
complexity of the Vedic sacrifices was another factor that tended to make the
wife's association in religious rituals a more and more formal affair in course
of time. Towards the end of the period of the later Samhitas and Brahmanas, a
maiden could hardly hope to get a full and adequate knowledge necessary for the
purpose, unless she remained unmarried till about the age of 22 or 24. This was
an impracticable proposition for the average girl. There were new forces in
society which were clamouring for early marriages. The Aryans had settled down
in a rich and prosperous country and their political supremacy had become
unquestioned. Naturally they took to an easy and luxurious life, and the
marriageable age of boys and girls began to be lowered. In the Rigvedic age the
father was anxious to have strong and numerous sons more for secular than for
religious purposes; in the days of the later Samhitas, the son became a
religious rather than a secular necessity.
Owing to the
different causes narrated above, at the beginning of this period (c. 500
BC), there arose a tendency to lower the marriageable age of girls, and as a
consequence, to discourage their upanayana [initiation] and education.
The view that women should not be at all allowed to participate in sacrifices
was no doubt not accepted by society, but its vigorous advocacy by one school,
along with the general lowering of the marriage age, tended to a growing and
inevitable neglect of the Vedic education of girls. At about 200 AD, it was
felt that this meaningless formality should be discontinued. It was declared
that marriage was the substitute for upanayana in the case of girls;
they need not have any separate sacred initiation.
Upanayana was
usually performed at about the age of 9 or 10, and the same age now came to be
regarded as the ideal time of marriage for girls. Towards the end of this
period (c. 500 AD), parents could not usually keep their daughters
unmarried after the age of 12.
The discontinuance
of upanayana, the neglect of education and the lowering of the marriage
age produced disastrous consequences upon the position and status of women.
Early marriage put an effective impediment in the higher education of girls.
Brides being too young and inexperienced, ceased to have any effective voice in
the settlement of their marriages. Svayamvara [free choice of male
partner] continued to be in vogue in Ksatriya [military and royal] circles, but
it came to be condemned by Brahminical writers. Love marriages became a thing
of the past. Child wives with no education worth the name became the order of
the day, and they could not naturally command respect from their husbands. Not
infrequently parents had to marry their daughters in a hurry, lest the girls
should attain puberty before their marriage. The matches arranged under such
circumstances were often ill suited, and women were thus often compelled to
spend their lives with unsuitable or unworthy partners. It is painful to find
that Smriti writers should have come forward to preach the gospel that a wife
should always revere her husband as God, even if he were a moral wreck.
Influence of Royal Court
During the period
under review, marriage became an irrevocable union, irrevocable, however, only
so far as the wife was concerned. The husband could discard his wife for the
grave offence of not being sufficiently submissive. The wife however, could not
take a similar step and marry a second time, even if her husband had taken to
vicious ways and completely abandoned her.
The age of city or
small states had gone, and the Hindu kingdoms in this period became fairly
extensive. The splendour of royal courts naturally increased, and kings began
to keep a much bigger harem than what was ever dreamt of in previous epochs.
Their example was imitated by their numerous feudatories and rich subjects.
This produced a very unfavourable consequence upon the condition and status of
the vast majority of women of the upper classes, and it had its natural
repercussions on the status of wives in ordinary families. The dictum, 'The
wife ought to revere her husband as a god, even if he were vicious and void of
any merit', was probably written with a particular reference to the unfortunate
denizens of the harems in rich families; subsequently the advice came to be
extended to the whole sex. One can hardly excuse Smriti writers for having
enunciated this absurd and enequitable doctrine, though one can understand that
their motive may have been partly to discourage a hasty tendency to sever the
marital tie. They have, however, never dreamt of preaching a similar gospel to
the husband; they permit him to discard his first wife on the most flimsy grounds.
The period of 500
years between 200 BC and 300 AD was a very dark and dismal one for Northern
India. The fertile plains of the Punjab and the Gangetic valley were subjected
during this period to one foreign invasion after another. First came the Greeks,
who under Demetrius and Menander (c. 190-150 BC) were able to penetrate
right up to Patna in Bihar. Then came the Scythians and the Parthians (c.
100 BC to 50 AD), whose frightful wars of conquest reduced Hindu population by
one half, 25 percent, being killed and 25 percent, being enslaved and carried
away (Gargasamhita, Yugpurana, vv.54, 84). These barbarians were
followed by the Kushanas, who succeeded in overrunning practically the whole of
northern India by the middle of the 2nd century AD. Political
reverses, war atrocities and the decline of population and prosperity naturally
produced a wave of despondency in society. It facilitated the spread of the
ideal of renunciation (Sannyasa) [celibate life for men], which though
held before society by Upanishadic, Buddhist and Jain teachers, was meeting
with stubborn opposition in Hindu community. Thus Kautilya prescribes a
punishment for a person who would renounce the world before his old age, and
without provinding for his dependents (II,1). Early Dharmasutra writers
regard renunciation as a positively anti-Vedic custom (Apastamba Dharmasutra,
II, 9, 9; Baudhayana Dharmasutra, II, 6, 29). The despondency prevailing
in society at about the beginning of the Christian era began to wear down the
opposition to the Sannyasa ideal.
Adverse Influence of Ascetic
Philosophy
Just as the
renunciation philosophy of the Bhakti school appealed to Hindu society in
medieval times owing to the political setback which it had received at the time
on account of the rise of Islam, so also the ascetic ideal of Upanishads,
Jainism and Buddhism began to get a real hold over the social mind only at
about the beginning of the Christian era owing to the prevailing wave of
political and economic despondency. It strengthened the hands of those who were
opposed to Niyoga and widow remarriage. Both the customs therefore fell
gradually into disrepute. It began to be argued that the world was a mirage,
and its pleasures were mere snares. The fate was undoubtedly cruel to the widow
in carrying away her husband. It had however given her a new opportunity to
secure spiritual salvation. It is true that the Vedas have declared that a son
was necessary for securing heaven; the childless widow, however, should not
think of remarriage in order to get heaven through a son.
A greater
calamity that overtook the widow in this period was the revival of the Sati
custom. In the beginning it was confined to the warrior class. It however began
to spread wider in society in course of time, as the action of the Sati came to
be regarded as a great religious sacrifice, which deserved to be imitated. The
only direction in which the position of women improved in this period was in
the sphere of proprietary rights. It thus came to happen that the proprietary
rights, which were not recognised in the Vedic age when women were better
educated and enjoyed greater freedom, came gradually to be recognised during
this period.
Proprietary Rights Increase
It is true that the
doctrine of perpetual tutelage of women became popular at this time. Jurists
felt no self-contradiction in declaring that women were unfit for independence,
and yet investing them with new proprietary rights.
It is further true
that the tendency to regard women as fragile and of a weak moral fibre was
getting stronger in this period. It was, however, only the woman in the
abstract that was so regarded. In society, however, the woman in the abstract
did not exist; there was the wife or the daughter or the mother, and for every
one of them Hindu society felt very tenderly. The daughter and the wife had the
father and the husband to provide for them, but there was no such guardian of
natural affection to look after the childless widow.
The
Age of Later Smritis, Commentators and Digest-writers (500 AD – 1,800 AD)
[such as Narada
Smriti and Manu Smriti]
The only sphere in
which the position of women improved in this age was the one of proprietary
rights; otherwise she continued to lose all along the line. Most of the causes
responsible for women's degradation during the last period continued to operate
in this age also. The upanayana of women went completely out of vogue. From the
theological point of view the woman therefore came naturally to be regarded as
of the same status as the Sudra [laborer]. The marriageable age of girls was
lowered down still further. Towards the end of the former period, it was
recommended that girls should be married just before the time of their puberty.
It would appear that this did not exclude the possibility of a few negligent
parents failing to marry their daughters before that time. To prevent this
possibility it now came to be declared that a girl becomes mature (rituprapta)
not when menses appear at the age of 13 or 14, but at the age of 10 or 11, when
some preliminary symptoms of impending puberty manifest themselves. The proper
age for marriage was therefore 10. The age of 8, however, was regarded as the
ideal one; marriage in the case of girls corresponded to upanayana in the case
of boys, and the proper age for the latter was 8. In Ksatriya [royal and
military] families, however, girls continued to be married at about the age of
14 or 15. Widow marriages had become prohibited at this period. The Sati custom
had become common in the fighting classes.
Effects of Child Marriages
In the case of
non-Ksatriya girls, who were married at the age of 10 or 11, naturally no
education worth the name could be imparted. Down to about 1200 AD, daughters in
rich families continued to receive some literary education through special
teachers; a few of them used to distinguish themselves as poetesses and critics
down to the 10th century AD. But this tradition died down when the
old aristocracy perished or declined in importance after the establishment of
the Muslim rule. In ordinary families naturally girls now began to grow in
ignorance; no education worth the name was possible before the age of 10 or 11,
which had now become the usual marriageable age. At the advent of the British
rule the literacy among women was confined only to the class of dancing girls;
women in respectable families felt very uneasy if it was suspected that they
were literate. Being generally illiterate and inexperienced, women naturally
ceased to inspire respect, and the tendency to pass cynical observations about
their weakness and worthlessness became more common.
The Christian
theologians were declaring at this time that the husband was the head of the
wife, as Christ was the head of the Church. Hindu Smritis advocated an exactly
similar doctrine, and maintained that the husband was the wife's god and her
only duty was to obey and serve him. The example of royal harems made polygamy
more and more fashionable. Marital faithlessness on the part of the husband
became more common owing to the custom of child marriage.
Early marriage was
naturally followed by early maternity, which increased the mortality among
women between the ages of 14 and 22. Young widowers of 25 or 30 were naturally
more eager to follow the rule of Manu, which permitted an immediate remarriage,
than to emulate the example of Sri Ramacandra, who declined to marry a second
time. Widowers of 25 or 30, however, could get brides of 9 or 10 only. This
enormous disparity between the ages of the two parties naturally helped the
spread of concubinage in society. Its moral tone was affected, and it began to
feel nothing objectionable in allowing dancing girls to sing and dance on holy
occasions like those of upanayana and marriage, or at the time of the
religious service in temples. The oppositon of purists to this custom proved of
no avail, and eventually the association of dancing girls with sacred Samskaras
[purificatory ceremonies for twice-born castes] and temple worship became quite
common in several parts of the country.
Sati and Tonsure Customs
We have shown above
that at c. 500 AD the custom of the Sati was meeting with considerable
opposition from the thinking section of society. That opposition continued
unabated for another 500 years, and the majority of Smritis went on averring
that the custom amounted to a suicide and could bring no spiritual salvation.
Eventually, however, owing to the growing appreciation of the ascetic ideals
and practices, the custom of the Sati came to be surrounded with a halo and
began to make a wider appeal. Gradually, however, Brahmanas also began to
follow the custom, as they did not like to be excelled by Ksatriyas in the
pursuit of ascetic practices. The tonsure of the widow came into vogue by about
the eighth century AD. With the disappearance of Buddhism at this time, the
prejudice against the custom gradually disappeared, and it was recommended to
the widow as a kind of help and protection to her in her ascetic resolve and
life.
Puranas and the Bhakti School
We have seen above
that women were declared to be of the same status as that of the Sudras, and so
came to be gradually excluded from the study of and acquaintance with higher
theology and philosophy. Women, however, are by nature more religious than men,
and so a new type of religious literature was evolved to meet their needs and
aspirations. This was the remoddelled Pauranic literature. It enunciated the
principles of Hinduism in a homely, easy and attractive manner, illustrating
them with a number of edifying stories. Pious people made provision all over
the country for the exposition of Puranas to public audiences. Women became
very well grounded in the culture of the race by habitually listening to this
literature. Faith, almost blind faith, was however held up for high admiration
in Puranas. It was terefore well developed in women, to the detriment however
of rationalism. It must be however noted that reason was at a discount at this
period among males also both in India and Europe.
Rationalism has been
at a discount with Hindu thinkers during the last more than one thousand years;
this circumstance has been responsible for a very unfortunate change in
society's angle of vision in a very important matter vitally affecting the
well-being of women. Down to about 800 AD Smritis were emphatic in declaring
that women, who were forcibly taken into captivity or dishonoured, should be
admitted back to their families. Pseudo-puritanical notions distorted social
vision in this matter soon after c. 1,000 AD. Hindu society began to
show a surprising callousness to women, who had the misfortune of being carried
away into captivity even for a very short time.
General Deterioration
From c. 1,200
AD Hindu society refused to follow the lead of Smriti writers and declared that
once a woman was converted [to Islam] or taken into captivity [by Moghul
rulers], nothing would justify her readmission to her old family and religion.
This callous and unreasonable attitude has cost Hindu society very dearly. Had
the women, who had been forcibly converted or captured, been readmitted into
Hindu society, its population would certainly not have dwindled down to 75% of
the population of pre-partition India.
The above survey of
the position of Hindu women would show that their condition has been on the
whole deteriorating during the last two thousand years. It has also to be
pointed out that some of the grievances from which women were suffering during
the last two thousand years were either theoretical or common to both men and
women. Thus it was only a handful of Pandits [men well-versed in the scriptures],
who under the influence of theological theories, regarded women as being of the
same status as that of the Sudras; to ordinary society, however, women were
symbols of purity, religiousness and spirituality. They, and not men, were the
custodians of national culture, and determined the details of religious rituals
and ceremonies more authoritatevely than the professional priest. The usual way
of imbibing national culture and traditional wisdom was to listen to the
village preacher (Kathaka or Pauranika) [oral tradition or
Pauranic history], and illiterate women had greater facilities and
opportunities to do this than literate men.
Even during the last
two thousand years the average woman continued to lead a happy and contented
life, fondled by her parents, loved by her husband and revered by her children.
It must be, however, admitted that her cup of happiness was frequently split in
this period than over before by the prohibition of widow remarriage, the
revival of the Sati custom, the spread of the Purda [seclusion] and the greater
prevalence of polygamy and supersession. Society's attitude towards her was
also one of patronising condescension. It no doubt insisted that she whould be
properly cared for and attended to, but it did not take any effective steps to
check the growing tendency to pass very uncharitable and utterly unjustifiable
remarks about her nature and worth. It allowed the husband to trample under
foot the marriage vow quite openly, but insisted that it should be followed by
the wife, even if her husband were a moral wreck.
Copyright © Dr. A.S. Altekar M.A. 1956
Krishna | Shiva | Tempeldans
