Status of Women in Ancient India

We have to discuss the position of women during the Vedic, post Vedic and the epic period in order to get a full picture of the status of women in ancient India.

Women in the Vedic and the post Vedic Periods:

The Indian cultural tradition begins with the Vedas. It is generally believed that the Vedic period is spread over from 300 BC to 600 B.C. Some general observations and broad generalization can only be made regarding the status of women during this vast period.

(i) Freedom Enjoyed By Women:

The degree of freedom given to women to take part in public activities indicates the nature of the status enjoyed by women during Vedic period. Women never observed “purdah”. They enjoyed freedom. They enjoyed freedom in selecting their male partner. They could educate themselves Widows were permitted to remarry. Divorce was however not permissible to them. Even men did not have the right to divorce their wives. Women were given complete freedom in family matters and were treated as “Ardhanginis”.

(ii) Equal Educational opportunities for women:

Daughters were never ill-treated although male children were preferred to female children. They also received education like boys and went through the “Brahmaachary” discipline including the “Upanayana” ritual. Women studied the Vedic literature like men and some of them like Lopamudra, Ghosa and Sikata-Nivavari figure among the authors of the vedic hymns. Many girls in well-to-do families used to be given a fair amount of education down to about B.C 300.

(iii) Position of Women in Matters Relating To Marriage and Family Affairs:

Marriage in the Vedic period was considered a social and religious duty and united the couple on an equal looting. Women had the right to remain spinsters throughout their life. Marriage was not forcibly imposed on them Child marriages were unknown. Girls were given in marriage only after puberty that too after completing their education women had the right to select their life-partners.

Often there were also love marriages called “Gandharva vivaha”. Monogamy was the form of marriage during the Vedic days. Re-marriage of widows was allowed. These are a number of references to custom of “Niyoga” where a brother or the nearest relative of a deceased husband could marry the widow with the permission of the elders.

Niyoga was mostly practiced to obtain a child for continuing the family tradition. Rig-Veda recognized the right of a spinster to inherit her father’s property. The practice of “Sati” is no where mentioned in the Rig-Veda. The practice of taking dowry was there but it was only symbolic. It had not emerged as a social evil.

In family matters, though the custom and tradition invested the husband with greater powers in the management of the household, still in many respects they were regarded as equal of their husbands. Both husband and wife were regarded as the joint heads of the household. The wife was however expected to be obedient to the husband helping him in the performance of his duties including the religious ones.

(iv) Economic Production and occupational Freedom:

Vedic women had economic freedom. Some women were engaged in teaching work. Home was the place of production. Spinning and weaving of clothes were done at home. Women also helped their husbands in agricultural purists.

(v) Property Rights and Inheritance:

Women rights were very much limited in inheriting property. A married daughter had no share in her father’s property but each spinster was entitled to one-fourth share of patrimony received by her brothers. Women had control over gifts and property etc. received by a woman at the time of marriage but the bulk of the family property was under the control and management of the patriarch.

As a wife, a woman had no direct share in her husband’s property. However, a forsaken wife was entitled to 1/3rd of her husband’s wealth. A widow was expected to lead an ascetic life and had no share in her husband’s property. Thus it could be generalized that the social situation was not in favour of women possessing property and yet protection was given to them as daughters and wives.

(vi) Role in the Religious Field:

In the religious field, wife enjoyed full rights and regularly participated in religious ceremonies with her husband. Religious ceremonies and sacrifices were performed jointly by the husband and the wife. Women even participated actively in religious discourses. There was no bar for women to read or study any of our sacred literature.

Role of Women in Public Life:

Women could shine as debaters in public assemblies. They usually occupied a prominent place in social gatherings but they were denied entry, into the “Sabhas” because these places besides being used for taking political decisions were also used for gambling, drinking and such others purposes. Women’s participation in public meetings and debates, however, became less and less common in later Vedic period.

It may thus be concluded that in Vedic India, women did not enjoy an inferior status rather they occupied an honourable place. They had ample rights in the social and the religious fields and limited rights in the economic and the political fields. They were not treated as inferior or subordinate but equal to men.

Status of women during the Epic period:

The women of Epic India enjoyed an honorable position at home. Both Ramayana and Mahabharata Epics had given a respectable place for women; women had been called the root of Dharma, prosperity and enjoyment in both the epics. We find vast references of the expression of courage, strong willpower and valour of women like Kaikeye, Sita, Rukmani, Satyabhama, Sabitri, Draupadi and others.

The Ramayana is a glorious illustration for the Hindu ideal womanhood, it glorifies the value of “Pativratya” and idealises womanhood as one of the most venerable aspects of our heritage. The Mahabharata also outlines the duties and the attitude of the wife to the husband.

Women during the Period of Dharmashatras and Purans:

During the period of Dharmashastras and puranas the status of women gradually declined and underwent a major change. The girls were deprived of formal education Daughters were regarded as second class citizens. Freedom of women was curtailed. Sons were given more weightage than daughters Girls were prevented from learning the Vedas and becoming Brahma charinis.

Manu, the law giver of Indian society gave the statement that women have to be under father during childhood, under her husband during youth and under her son during old age”. At no stage shall she deserve freedom. However he balanced this with the statement that a society in which the woman was not honoured would be condemned to damnation.

Due to the various restrictions imposed on the freedom of women some problems started creeping in. In the social fields, pre-puberty marriage came to be practiced, widow remarriage was prohibited, husband was given the status of God for a woman, education was totally denied to woman, custom of ‘Sati’ became increasingly prevalent, purdah system came into vogue and practice of polygyny came to be tolerated.

In the economic field a woman was totally denied a share in her husband’s property by maintaining that a wife and a slave cannot own property. In the religious field, she was forbidden to offer sacrifices and prayers, practise penance and undertake pilgrimages.

Factors That Caused the Degradation of Women:

Prabhati Mukharjee, the renounced sociologist has identified some reasons for the low status of women in post Vedic period. These reasons are imposition of Brahmanical austerities on the entire society, rigid restrictions imposed by the caste system and the joint family system, lack of educational facilities for women, introduction of the non-Aryan wife into the Aryan house hold and foreign invasions.

Women in the Buddhist Period:

The status of women improved a little during the Buddhist period though there was no tremendous change. Some of the rigidities and restrictions imposed by the caste system were relaxed. Buddha preached equality and he tried to improve the cultural, educational and religious statuses of women. During the benevolent rule of the famous Buddhist kings such as Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Sri Harsha and others, women regained a part of their lost freedom and status due to the relatively broadminded Buddhist philosophy.

Women were not only confined to domestic work but also they could resort to an educational career if they so desired. In the religious field women came to occupy a distinctly superior place. Women were permitted to become “Sanyasis”. Many women took a leading role in Buddhist monastic-life, women had their sangha called the Bhikshuni Sangha, which was guided buy the same rules and regulations as these of the monks. The sangha opened to them avenues of cultural activities and social service and ample opportunities for public life. Their political and economic status however remained unchanged.

Status of women in the Medieval India:

The Medieval period (Period between 500 A. D to 1500 A.D) proved to be highly disappointing for the Indian women, for their status further deteriorated during this period. Muslim invasion of India changed the direction of Indian history. The influx of foreign invaders and the Brahmanical iron laws were main causes for such degradation.

As far as a woman was concerned, her freedom was curtailed, knowledge of not only the scriptures but even letters was denied to her and her status was reduced to that of an appendage on man. Caste laws dominated the entire social life widow remarriage and levirate’s were disallowed. Women could not inherit property. Girls were treated more as burdens or liabilities than as assets.

Moreover the status of women reduced to the status of slaves during medieval period. The women faced many problems such as child marriage purdah system, practice of Sati etc. Throughout the medieval period, the status of women went on declining.

However, during the 14th and 15th centuries, the social situation had undergone some change Ramanujacharya organised the first Bhakti Movement during this period which introduced new trends in the social and the religious life of women in India. The great saints like chaitanya, Nanak, Kabir and others fought for the rights of women to religious worship. Really the Bhakti Movement unlocked the gate of religious freedom to women. As a result of this freedom, they secured certain social freedom also. The purdah system was abolished women could go out of their families to attend pravachanas, Krirtans, Bhajans, and so on.

The system “Grihashram” of Bhakti Movement did not permit saints to take to sanyas without the consent of wife. This condition gave some important right to women. The saints of the Bhakti Movement encouraged women to read religious books and to educate themselves.

Thus the Bhakti movement gave a new life to women but this movement did not bring any change in the economic structure of the society and hence women continued to hold low status in the society’. The revival of ‘Sati’ the prohibition of remarriage, the spread of “Purdah” and the greater prevalence of polygamy made her position very bad. Thus there was a vast gap between the status of woman in the early Vedic period and that in the Medieval period and onwards.