Position of Women in India

Table of Index INTRODUCTION INTRODU CTION...................... ............................................. .............................................. .............................................. .............................................. .............................. ............. ...... 2 CHAPTER – 2...................... ............................................. .............................................. .............................................. ............................................. ............................ ............ ............ ........ ..3 3 CHAPTER – 3...................... ............................................. .............................................. .............................................. ............................................. ............................ ............ ............ ........ ..5 5 CHAPTER – 4...................... ............................................. .............................................. .............................................. ............................................. ............................ ............ ............ ........ ..8 8 POSITION OF WOMEN AFTER AFTER VEDIC AGE..................... ............................................ ......................................... ........................ ............ .......... ....8 8 CHAPTER – 5 .................................................................................................................................. 10 CHAPTER – 6...................... ............................................. .............................................. .............................................. ........................................... .......................... ........... ........... ......... ...11 11 CHAPTER – 7...................... ............................................. .............................................. .............................................. ........................................... .......................... ........... ........... ......... ...14 14 CHAPTER – 8...................... ............................................. .............................................. .............................................. ........................................... .......................... ........... ........... ......... ...18 18 CONCLUSION CONCLUS ION.................... ........................................... .............................................. .............................................. ............................................. ..................................... ................... .... 18

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CHAPTER – 1 INTRODUCTION The worth of a civilization can be judged by the place given to women in the society. One of several factors that justify the greatness of India's ancient culture is the honourable place granted granted to women. women.1 Manu, the great law-giver, said long ago, 'where women are honoured there reside the gods'. 2 It is the common belief that Indian women have constantly had to fight for their identities as separate individuals. They have had to struggle to break the image of a subservient soul. They They have have been been oppr oppres esse sed d if they they tried tried to chal challen lenge ge the the wide widely ly held held opin opinee of a male male dominated community. But this is not a right view, the position of a woman in ancient India was almost equivalent to that of a man and she was looked upon as one possessing a lot of power .3 Unfortunately, this position started to deteriorate over a period of time due to commonly held superstitions, the upcoming Varna system

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and prevalent Brahmin opinion, and a host of

other reasons. The position of women deteriorated over the ages and women came to be looked upon as things and properties, they had to face several hardships and were expected to treat their husbands as Gods. In medieval India serious practices and evils came to be forced on women such as sati, jauhar, etc. After that the position of women could never completely be redeemed and although today Indian women have learnt to stand independently of men, make their own choices, enforce their rights, etc. one cannot say that women are treated with the respect that they were treated with in the early Vedic period.









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CHAPT HAPTER ER – 2 THE EARLY VEDIC AGE During the Vedic Age the society was more or less a patrilineal society. But despite a degree of male dominance, men and women complemented each other and the life during the Rig Vedic period was seen positively. The birth of daughters was not desired and people prayed for abundance of sons, but once girl girlss were were born born they they were were not not treat treated ed with with disr disres espe pect ct and and were were not not look looked ed upon upon with with contempt and disregard. They were treated with respect and kindness. Their education was not neglected; neglected; some of the women became seers eg. Visvavara, Ghosha Ghosha and Apala. 5 Some even composed Vedic hymns eg. Lopamidra 6. This is important because it confirms the fact that women were allowed to take part in various rituals. If women could compose hymns then they must have also recited them. Family was the focal point point in the Rig Vedic period. period. There was complementa complementarity rity between men and women in that period of time. This is represented by the fact that young women met potential suitors at festivals and gatherings and only later sought the permission of their parents to marry the spous spousee of their their choice choice.. Women Women were were never never seclude secluded d and were allowe allowed d to attend attend such gatherings and functions. 7 They loved to display their skills in dancing and singing to the accompaniment of lutes and cymbals. 8 Dancing was never looked down upon as a degrading means means of enterta entertainm inment ent at that that time. time. Comple Complemen mentari tarity ty is also also repres represent ented ed by the term “ Dampati” which signified the master of the house 9 and the couple 10. Women were given in marriage when they attained puberty. Some kingdoms in ancient India had a tradition of “ Nagarvadhu.”11 Women competed competed to win the coveted title of Nagarvadhu Nagarvadhu. Amarpali is the most famous example of Nagarvadhu Nagarvadhu.12

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R.C. Majumdar et.al. ,AN ADVANCED HISTORY OF INDIA , 4 th ed. 1978, 20 th imp. 2007, p.30. 6 Supra n.2. 7 Ibid.









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Kanyadaan was performed by the father and it was considered to be the greatest sacrifice that a father could give.13 It is a probability that due to the concept of Kanyadaan , girl children were not desired. The presence of the couple at home was a prerequisite for the deities to receiv receivee offeri offerings ngs there. there. Even Even the God’s God’s acknow acknowled ledged ged this this worldl worldly y orient orientatio ation n and the importance of the woman’s role as a wife and a mother. The God’s infact would receive offerings only in those homes where a wife was present as she was considered ‘half the ritual.’ But women were never looked at as independent persons in the eyes of the law and they had to rely on the males for support, i.e., a woman was dependent on her father in her childhood, on her husband as a wife and on her son in old age. 14 Widow burning or sati does not seem to have been prevalent. 15 The position of women is also reflected in the religious beliefs of the society. The Pantheon in the Rig-Veda was mostly male; there were only a few female Goddesses who represented the female roles of mother, sister, daughter and wife. For example Prithvi, mother Earth, etc. etc.16 Overall the status of women in this period was very respectable even in the presence of male dominance. Women had freedom, education, and a very high status making this period a golden age for them. Never again would women enjoy this kind of respect in a male dominated society.









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CHAPTER – 3 THE MIDDLE, LATER VEDIC AGE AND BEYOND TRANSITION FROM EARLY VEDIC AGE TO LATER VEDIC AGE:

The position position of women women in this period gradually gradually started to deteriorate deteriorate from one of respect to one of insignificance. There were several reasons for this. The most important reasons were that the varna17 system had come about, migrations were occurring towards the east, the eventual state formation in the Ganga Valley, all had their effects on the status of elite women, i.e., the women belonging to the three castes of the Brahmans, Kshatriyas and

Vaishyas as they were ruled by the Stridharma which meant duties of a woman. There was a change in the rituals due to the complexities arising out of the division of rituals into household ( grahya) and public rituals, thus the women were restricted to performing the household rituals. Ritual specialisation became the preserve of Brahmin male priests and participation of women in rituals became more and more restricted. Education was expanded and was taught at special forest schools which were less accessible to the girls. Families had a tendency to keep them at home and they generally taught them only what was essential for the performance of domestic mantras and rituals. Women rarely officiated at the public rituals, although it was essential for them to be present besides their husbands as patni. She was always seated by the householder’s fire and this proved the link between her realm of home and the domestic fire. Yet women were viewed as objects of great power when it came to rituals in spite of their minor role. This was because the wife injected her power of sexuality and fertility into the ritual in order to provide energy for progeny, cattle, crops and rain. Some women did defy the general ideas of the society by becoming brahmavadinis

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and

studied the Vedas. It is presumed that most of these brahmavadinis were the daughters of teachers teachers in forest school

A few women were also known to be intellectually intellectually inquisiti inquisiti









6 The Upanishads provide various examples of such women. For example Gargi’s challenge to Yajnavalkya in a philosophical debate is an indication of her learning. The religious beliefs of the society also underwent change to the extent of the addition of more goddesses to their deities. But the basic principle of non-independence of Goddesses remained present. For example the concept of wife-deity emerged in the late Vedic period. Names such as Varunni, Indrani, etc came from the names of prominent male gods. Although, later Sri designated an independent female entity, which held the key to success for the Kings and brought them fertility, riches, health, beauty and auspiciousness to the empire, Sri was subsequently linked to Laksmi, the personification of wealth and prosperity. The connection connection of women’s women’s power power of tapas19, royal power, rain and agriculture is found in many subsequent texts such as the Tamil (Jain) epic Cilappatikaram. 20

THE LATER VEDIC AGE: The position of women during this time deteriorated completely. This is evident from the texts written by men in that period eg. Sutras, early Puranas etc. Manusmrati says 'na stri

swatantryam arhati' and this means that all Indian women lack freedom to do anything .

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Their role changed in the Vedic rituals, their body was described to be a vessel for male seeds, and they were married off even before they attained puberty. Whereas once sons and daughters were seen in equal light, in this period sons were not only preferred, daughters came to be seen as a source of liability due to dowry and was viewed as a poor investment in her bridal house. Daughters were seen as a source of misery. Women could not go to the tribal council or assembly; neither could they take an inheritance. Married women of the upper class had to suffer the presence of rival wives. wives .22 Women lacked education because the education system had become inaccessible for them. They were thus considered as illiterate and avidya 23. This led to their linking with the lower castes, i.e., the Sudras. It was an irony that the Brahmin s considered themselves superior to others and the highest class but the Brahmin women were linked to Sudras and were inferior in learning. To resolve this inherent contradiction the high status of the Brahman women was defined by their chastity and purity. Whenever a woman’s husband died it was blamed on her bad karma. She then had two options either to go through life as a Vaidhawa , a widow; or











7 she could commit sati by burning herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. 24 A widow had to wear white, to curb her impulses and emotions, to sleep on a mat of grass. A widow who slep sleptt on a cot cot was was actua actuall lly y char charge ged d with with send sendin ing g her her husb husban and d to hell hell.. 25 The Smriti Smriti commentaries direct that the wife should never be given independence and she should be secluded and her mind should be applied only to the domestic rituals so that she does not have the time to think of other men. men .26 Although the first half of the classical age was characterised by a decline in the status of women the second half showed improvement. The Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita contain contain passages with a more inclusive inclusive spirit of women women and these were redacted during this time. Goddesses and epic heroines provided models for human wives. From the classical period two of the divine models for the good wife have been Sita, Sati Parvati, Laksmi, Savitri, Damayanti, Draupadi etc. Wife-Goddesses represented an ascetic sexuality, i.e., sexuality controlled by their husbands. The structure of a woman’s life cycle was visually marked by the presence or absence of a presence ce or absenc absencee of this this dot signif signified ied auspic auspiciou iousne sness ss or inausp inauspici icious ousnes nesss tilak . The presen respectively. The same was applied for her other accessories, eg. Bangles, toe-rings, etc. these these orname ornaments nts symboli symbolised sed the dynami dynamics cs of the union and separat separation ion in the life of a woman. 27 The above mentioned superstitions and unscientific ideologies of society founded the basis for determining the status of women in the times to come.









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CHAPTER – 4 POSITION OF WOMEN AFTER VEDIC AGE INDIA IN EARLY MAGADHAN EPOCH Women were treated differently in the South and the Northern region of India. Women in the south south were granted granted certain privileges privileges not available available to their contempora contemporaries ries in the south. For e.g. the wife in the south was allowed to eat in the company of her husband and restriction on the marriages of cognates were not that strict in the south as they were in the north. The picture of women as given in the Greek accounts, Buddhist discourses or epic tales does not always agree with that portrayed in the formal codes of law. The women of the Dharma-

Sutras were helpless beings who were always dependent on their male relations and were classed with properties of minors or sealed deposits. The women known to Alexander’s contemporaries took the weapons of their relatives who had died in war and fought side by side with the men against the enemy of their country. Education was not denied to women, some of whom were widely known for their knowledge and learning. Buddhist texts refer to the princesses who composed poetry, preserved in the Their-Gatha.28 In several epic stories stories like the Mahabharata one finds references to the concept of Swayamwara or choice of a husband by the bride herself. Seclusion of women was practiced in certain families whereas there were instances where women laid aside their veils and came out of the seclusion of their house. house.29 WOMEN IN THE MAURYA-SCYTHIAN ERA Greek writers and epigraphs provide the details on the status of women in this period. Some









9 religious activities by the side of her husband is clear from the records of the benefactions of Karuvaki, the second queen of Ashoka.

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WOMEN IN THE GUPTA PERIOD Women of the upper classes in certain areas took a prominent share in administration. The queen-consort occupied an important position in this era. In certain provinces, e.g. Kanarese, women acted as provincial governors and heads of villages. The seclusion of women was not generally observed in these areas. Some of the royal ladies in Deccan were not only skilled at dancing but also in the display of arts in public. Absolute seclusion of women was unknown in certain families. Girls of the upper class families received a liberal education and took keen interest in the cultural activities of the age. The practise of Swayamvara was still in use. Unfortunately the picture was not all that rosy, polygamy was widely prevalent, and the custom of burning widows at the funeral pyre of their husbands was coming into general use. use.31









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CHAPTER – 5 OTHER THEORIES FOR THE DETERIORATION OF THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE LATER VEDIC PERIOD. 1) The introduc introduction tion of a nonnon- Aryan wife wife into the the Aryan househ household old is the key key to the general general deterioration of the position of women. The non- Aryan wife with her ignorance of Sanskrit language and Hindu religion could not enjoy the same privileges as her Aryan consort. Very often the non- Aryan wife was the favourite one of her husband, who may have associated her with his religious sacrifices in preference to his better educated but less loved Aryan co-wife. This must have naturally led to grave mistakes and anomalies in the performance of the ritual which must have shocked orthodox priests. Their first remedy may have been to declare the non- Aryan wife to be unfit for association with her husband in religious rituals. But the Kings who were madly in love with these non-Aryan wives would have disobeyed this order. Thus the situation could have been retrieved only when all women were banned from the performance of rituals. rituals .32 2) The other other factor factor was the growin growing g complex complexity ity of the Vedic Vedic rituals. rituals.33Also the division of the rituals rituals into into Srauta Srauta and Grahya Grahya restric restrictin ting g the women women in their their knowle knowledge dge of the Vedas. Vedas.34 3) The Sahity Sahityas as pointe pointed d out that the man came came into the world world with a three fold fold debt; the the most important one of these was the debt to the manes which could be liquidated only by the birth of a son. Thus Thus if the girl was to marry the boy early, then she would be able to provide him with a son sooner. Hence the concept of child marriage started .35 4) As child child marriag marriagee became became accept accepted, ed, the need need to educate educate the girls was was not felt as they









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CHAPTER – 6 STATUS OF WOMEN IN EARLY MEDEVAL INDIA In early Medieval India women were accorded a high place in society. In a Hindu family she was regarded as the mistress of the house and no religious ceremony could be performed without her association. There was provision for their education and the period has said to have produced a number of highly learned women. The wife of Mandan Mishra is said to have defeated Shankarachar Shankaracharya ya in a philosoph philosophical ical discussion discussion.. Awantisund Awantisundari, ari, the wife of Rajshekhar had prepared a lexicon containing words of Prakrit and she had given her own compositions to illustrate the usage of those words. Mirabai was a devotee of high order and has left behind a collection of songs, vibrant with sentiments of personal devotion of Krishna. Contemporary saints flocked around her to hear her talk. However, inferiority of women to men is signified by a lot of things. In royal and Baronial families, polygamy was the rule so that women came to be regarded as a means of sexual satisfaction. After the coming of the Turks, the size of the harems began to increase and the social status of women became lower still. 37. As polygamy was a norm for these invaders they picked up any woman they wanted and kept her in their "harems". In order to protect themselves Indian women started using the 'Purdah', (a veil), which covered the entire body. Especially in Northern India, the practice of keeping women in seclusion and asking them to veil their faces in the presence of outsiders became widespread among the upper class women. The practice of secluding women from the vulgar gaze was practiced among the upper class Hindus, and was also in vogue in Iran, Greece, etc. The Arabs and the Turks adopted this custom and brought it to India with them. Due to their example, it became











12 to move freely and this lead to the further deterioration of their status. These problems related with women resulted in a changed mindset of people. The deterioration that had started in the later Vedic period became worse. Parents began to consider a girl as a source of misery and a burden, which had to be shielded from the eyes of intruders and needed extra care, whereas, a male child was treated with love and kindness. Nonetheless women were accorded an honourable place in society. In a Hindu family she was regarded as the mistress of the house and no religious ceremony was performed without her association. There was provision for their education and the period has produced a number of highly learned women. In the Mughal period also Female education of some sort existed and the daughters of the imperial household were given tuitions in their houses. Some of the ladies so instructed distinguished themselves in the sphere of literature. For e.g. Babur’s daughter, Gulbadan Begum was the authoress of the Humayunnamah. Nur Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal, Jahanara Begum, etc were extremely educated ladies; they were well read in Persian and Arabic. Zeb-un-Nisa was an expert in Calligraphy and had a rich library. 39 Roshanara set up a literary atelier (bait-ul-ulam) at Delhi to which Aurangzeb had banished her. Some women played an active part in politics as rulers themselves. For e.g. Rani Durgawati of Gondwana and Chand Bibi of Ahmednagar, by exercising power from their husbands, Nur Jahan. Razia









13 husband. Widows had no right to remarry and had to live like sanyasins. They lived in seclus seclusion ion and the purdah purdah system system became became very very elabor elaborate ate,, both both for the Hindus Hindus and the Muslims. This was due to the sense of insecurity of the period caused by the invasions of foreigners such as the Mongols.









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CHAPTER – 7 THE PRACTICES PREVALENT IN MEDIEVAL INDIA Jauhar: The voluntary death of the royal womenfolk of Rajputs and Rajput men in order

to avoid capture and dishonor at the hands of enemy. The t erm is extended to describe the occasional occasional practice of mass suicide suicide carried out in medieval medieval times by Rajput women and men. Mass self-immolation by women was called Jauhar , and riding out and fighting till their last breath by men was called saka. The practice is often described in terms of the women and children alone, but should correctly be understood as including the death of the men on the battlefield. Child Marriage: It was a norm in medieval India. Girls were married off at the age of 8-

10. They were not allowed access to education and were treated as the material being. The plight of women can be imagined by one of the Shloka of Tulsidas where he writes

"Dhol, gawar, shudra, pashu, nari, ye sab tadan ke adhikari" . Meaning that animals, illiterates, lower castes and women should be subjected to beating. Thus, women were compared with animals and were married off at an early age. The child marriage along with it brought some more problems such as increased birth rate, poor health of women









15 Education for girls : The girls of medieval India and especially Hindu society were not

given formal education. They were given education related to household chores. But a famous Indian philosopher 'Vatsyayana' wrote that women were supposed to be perfect in sixty four arts which included included cooking, cooking, spinning, spinning, grinding, grinding, knowledge knowledge of medicine, medicine, recitation and many more. As compared to Hindu society other societies such as Buddhism, Jainism and Christians were a bit lenient. Women in those societies enjoyed far more freedom. They had easy access to education and were more liberal in their approach. According to these religions gender was not the issue in attaining salvation. Any person whether a man or a woman is entitled to get the grace of god. During the time of king Ashoka women took part in religi religious ous preach preaching ing.. Accordi According ng to Hiuen Hiuen Tsang, Tsang, the famous famous travell traveller er of that that time, time, Rajyashri, the sister of Harshavardhana was a distinguished scholar of her time. Another such example is the daughter of king Ashoka, Sanghmitra. She along with her brother Mahendra went to Sri Lanka to preach Buddhism. The status of women in Southern India was better than the North India. While in Northern India there were not many women administrators, in Southern India we can find some names that made women of that time proud. Priyaketaladevi, queen of Chalukya









16 the temples. In temple they used to spend their time in worship of god and by singing and dancing for the god. Some kings used to invite temple dancers to perform at their court for the pleasure of courtiers and thus some Devadasis converted to Rajadasis (palace dancers) prevalent in some tribes of South India like Yellamma cult44

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The culture of the women varied according to the classes to which they belonged. The ordinary village women were confined to their domestic duties, whereas a few women belo belong ngin ing g to the the uppe upperr cast castee cult cultiv ivat ated ed arts arts and and scie scienc nces es.. For For eg. eg. Rupamati and

Padmavati were very learned and educated women of this period. The concepts of child marriage and sati were widely prevalent among certain classes. According to Ibn Batuta Ibn Batuta a permit had to be sought from the Sultan of Delhi before the burning of a widow. 45 Akbar tried to regulate social usages in such a way as to make the consent of both the bride and the bridegroom, and the permission of the parents, necessary for a marriage cont contrac ract. t. He also also soug sought ht to check check marri marriag agee befo before re pube pubert rty y by eith either er of the the part party, y, marriages between near relatives, acceptance of high dowries, and polygamy. But his attempts were in vain as they were never really practiced. 46 Likewise, there was little impact on Mughal attempt to regulate sati because all important Rajput rajas continued to practise it. Thus when Maharaja Man Singh died, four ranis committed sati along with him, him, and another another five five at anothe anotherr place. place.47 A sati came to be seen as possessing an immeasurable degree of moral merit. She could absolve her husband of the most heinous











17 Dowry system and Kanyadaan had become a necessity by this time. The bride groom considered the whole process of marriage as a sale. Earlier even the father of the bride received money from the groom but that system stopped all together together ..50 Now the prestige of the father of the bride was determined by the amount of dowry given by him to the groom. In certain cases when Zamindars had to be paid rent and the poverty stricken farmers had no money to pay the Zamindaar they would give up their daughter to be married off to the Zamindaar or the Zamindaar’s son. The Maratha society however did not encourage the acceptance of dowries. The Peshwas exercised an effective control over the state of affairs in Maharashtra and they were opposed to forcible marriages, but informal marriages were occasionally permitted by them if the motives of the contracting parties were correct. Widow-remarriage was prevalent among the non-Brahmanas of Maharashtra, Jats of the Punjab and the Jumna Valley. In the places mentioned above polyandry was not known.

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For women belonging to the common fold, life was hard.









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CHAPTER – 8 CONCLUSION Women were always the weaker sex and men are always thought to be better than women in all regards. This was the belief in all ages including the Rig Vedic period. The analysis of the researcher is that the gradual deterioration of the position of women in India occurred due to the superstitions and other ill-founded beliefs of the societies which developed into norms which the women had to follow. For e.g. in the Ramayana when Rama doubts the dignity of

Sita, she undertakes the test of fire, i.e., to prove her purity. She asks the Fire God to burn her if she burn she is impure and if not then pure. Sita comes out of the fire unhurt thereby successfully proving to Ram her purity. Similarly, it is the researcher’s opinion that, as a husband’s death was attributed to the karma and faults of the wife, she had to take the Fire









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BIBLIOGRAPHY LITERARY SOURCES:  

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A.B. Pandey ,Early medieval India ,2 nd ed. 1960, rep. 1993, Central Book Depot, Allahbad. Catherine Weinberg-Thomas, Widow burning in India – Ashes of Immortality,1 st ed. 2000, Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Dorien Dorienne ne Rowan-C Rowan-Camp ampbel bell, l, Develo Developme pment nt with with Women, Women, 1st ed., ed., 2006 2006,, Rawat Rawat Publication, Jaipur. George Duby and Michelle Perrot, A History of Women in the West, 1994 Harvard University press, Katherine K. Young, “Women and Hinduism,” Arvind Sharma (ed.), Women in Indian Religion, 1st ed. 2002, Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Kumkum Roy ,Women in the Early Indian Societies,1 st ed. 1999, Manohar, New Delhi. M. Bahati Kuumba, Gender and Social Movement, 1 st ed., Rawat Publications, Jaipur.









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Position of Women in India

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