It is myth that Women held very important position in ancient Indian society. Today I have come up with some proofs that show that in ancient India, life of women was pathetic and they had very low status in the society. We have many evidences of suppression and ill-treatment of women in Ancient Indo-Aryan society. Most of the problems like Child Marriages, Dowry system, Bride-Burning; No rights in their paternal property, Mass Wife-Burning (Jauhar) and Widow-Burning (Sati) have their roots in ancient India.
Female infanticide — The father of daughter was supposed to give huge dowries to the boy’s family and this system was also recommended by the Vedas. Hence a girl was seen as a burden. The woman who gave birth to a daughter was ashamed. Husbands were not supposed to have intercourse with a wife who bore only daughters. Hence infanticide arose as a convenient way of getting rid of the burden called daughter. Holy Aryan texts say:
“Tasmat striyam jatam parasyanti ut pumamsam haranti“
It means, Hence they reject a female child when born, and take up a male.”
Child marriage was common in ancient India due to the custom of dowry and to avoid scandals. Old Hindu mythology books including vedas prescribe that the best partner for a man in one-third his age.
” A man, aged thirty years, shall marry a maiden of twelve who pleases him, or a man of twenty-four a girl of eight years of age; if (the performance of) his duties would otherwise be impeded, he must marry sooner.” [Manu Smriti]
Wife-Burning — An Aryan husband could at any time accuse his wife of infidelity. In case the wife protests her innocence, the council of village elders would then order an ordeal by fire. The accused wife would be required to pass through a blazing flame. Not just death, but any signs of burns would be taken as a sign of guilt and the wife would then have to undergo the penalty for infidelity. Adultery carries the death sentence in Aryan law, so either way she would have to pay with her life for her husband’s or elders’ mere suspicions. The ideal role model for this custom was Sita, Ram’s wife. She was required by her spouse, the `ideal husband’ of the `Hindus’, to pass through the fire ordeal after her return from Sri Lanka.
Jauhar – It refers to the practice of the mass burning of all the wives and daughters in an entire town/district to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemies. Often the husbands forced their unwilling spouses, sometimes the women practiced it themselves, encouraged by the elders. It is merely a variant of sati, since it occurred in anticipation of the women’s widowhood.
Sati — The Aryans, upon their invasion of India ca. 1500 B.C. introduced the horrific custom of sati, ie. the burning of a woman after the death of her husband. When performed singly it is referred to as sati, when performed en masse by all the women and daughters of a town in anticipation of their widowhood (eg. when the men were to fight a battle against all odds), it is known as jauhar. It is sanctioned by their most sacred texts, and was practiced from the fall of the Semito-Dravidian Indus Valley civilization to the modern age.
Old Texts and quotes supporting Sati ::
“Let these women, whose husbands are worthy and are living, enter the house with ghee (applied) as corrylium ( to their eyes). Let these wives first step into the pyre, tearless without any affliction and well adorned.” [Rig Veda]
“It is proper for a woman, after her husband’s death to burn herself in the fire with his copse; every woman who thus burns herself shall remain in paradise with her husband 35,000,000 years by destiny.”
On her husband’s death, the widow should observe celibacy or should ascend the funeral pyre after him. [Vishnu Puran]
” The 8 queens of Krishna, who have been named, with Rukmini at their head, embraced the body of Hari, and entered the funeral fire. Revati also embracing the corpse of Ram, entered the blazing pile, which was cool to her, happy in contact with her lord. Hearing these events, Ugrasena and Anakadundubhi, with Devaki and Rohini, committed themselves to the flames.” [Vishnu Puran]
Methods of punishing women in Ancient India ::
Cutting off the ears and nose of wives — Aryan husbands cut off the ears and nose of their wives if they left the house without their prior permission. The Ramayana and Lord Ram practiced the cutting off of women’s noses for minor offences, thereby providing divine sanction for the custom. Shurpanakha was a Dravidian lady who fell in love with Ram. She proposed to him, but he directed her to his brother Laxman. He cut off her ears and nose for this crime.
Death Penalty — The death penalty was prescribed for Aryan women guilty of infidelity. Manu Smrti says “When a woman deceives her husband (with another man), then the king should ensure that she be torn apart by dogs in a public place and the evil man should be burnt in a bed of red-hot iron’. Infidelity to husband was considered a grave sin and it was believed that such women went to hell. The husband had the power to curse the wife who was disloyal to him. Thus the sage Gautama cursed his wife Ahalya for sleeping with Indra though through no fault of her own. During the Maurya period, if a woman was found guilty of a carnal crime her generative organs were cut off and she was ultimately sentenced to death.
Other Restrictions ::
- No Property Rights — Women and Sudras in ancient India have no property rights.
- Dressing — Aryan women had to wear a face-veil when going out. They were not supposed to entertain strangers.
- Not allowed to Sleep alone — Ancient women were not allowed to sleep alone. During the absence of her husband, she was supposed to sleep with one of her female relatives.
- No Education for women — Women and Sudras were declared to be unfit for study of the Vedas.
==> If you liked this post, then why not buy me a beer so I can cool off? 
Interesting ‘compilation’. While I am not casting a doubt on what you are talking about, much of which may be correct, though not all.
I have certain reservations regarding your approach to this apparent piece of ‘research’.
Below are a few of my preliminary observations:
1. You have begun with an assumption that people think that women held a very important position in India. This may not be true. The source of this assumption is not clear.
2. Ancient India is a very broad range, generally accepted as Indus Valley Civilization to AD 1300, encompassing 3800 years at the least. This period saw numerous changes in anything and everything. This article attempts to brush off/ generalize ancient India into one realm.
3. Ancient India has also been reduced to the early Aryan period, which is not correct.
4. Certain texts have been cited, however citation is incomplete and improper. One cannot cite large texts like Rigveda in their entirety. Please inform the reader about the position of the quoted text in the entire text.
5. Drawing on my earlier argument of ancient India not being a stationary and short period in time, it is important to know the likely and generally accepted dates when the texts were written/created/modified. For instance, a Vishnu Puran comes after centuries of the Rigveda. You can’t place both in the same boat.
6. Texts do give an idea, however it is generally accepted that they had been written by people with influence. You can’t take them literally. That’s why archaeology assumes prime importance. You can’t talk about things based on a few texts alone.
7. Last but not the least, ancient India wasn’t just about the Aryan religion or Brahmanism, which many incorrectly assume to be Hinduism as we understand the word today. It was also about Jainism, Buddhism and later Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shakt sects etc. It was also about Charvaka. Not to forget it was also about the Deccan and the peninsula, which were not strongholds of Aryans to begin with. And it was about an assimilation which a few centuries hence ensured that no one could actually call her/him an Aryan and be correct about that…
Hence, it’s my request to not take things at face value. Kindly base what you say on solid research and knowledge, rather than belief (even if your belief is certainly correct), if you have set out to ‘prove’ something.
Roshan
Good Morning Sir,
i want to state that this is very good subject.which you had been adressed .sir i want more on this topic.because this topic is very intresting,and i want more……….
thanking you
rohit kumar
dear & respected abhishek ji
there are certain points about your post that i would like to clarify…
1) female infenticide – no comments (although i myself don’t approv of this custom i find it quiet incredible that our vedas should support it)
2) child marriage – no comments (though i would like to think that this be a matter of personal judgment )
but yet again it is rather hard to imagine why a man must marry a girl 1/3 his age.
3)wife-burning – all things that happen, happen for a reason.
Shri Ram asked Maa Sita to pass through the burning blazes due to some reason.
It is believed that since shri ram was the lord vishnu himself, hence he knew what was about to happen (that is the abduction of maa sita by the evil lord ravana) but since the whole idea of that Avtar was a) to show the humans the ways of maryada & b) to rid the world of excesses of asuras; for this purpose a reason had to be created in order for ravana to get in a fight with ram. hence the abduction of sita was in-evitable. so lord ram decided to entrust his beloved sita to the security of agni dev and instead used her clone to bait ravana.
after the war had been fought and ravana defeated he only reclaimed his original wife from the agni dev.
He never for once doubted her or not-loved her for his whole life (as is evident from other facts).
But people who seek the half truths saw this act and decided to further their own mischievous and shady plans by useing the same as an excuse. but for this, the act itself cannot be blamed anymore or less than any life saving drug which when used wisely can save lives and when un-judiciously used may kill with same efficiency.
4) jauhar & sati – Now this is one thing which has always made me wonder..
In old days the mughals used to attack our cities with thier huge and unified armies.
due to whatever reasons our small and fractured kingdoms decided to fight their own battles and wars.
In those days when the going used to really get tough and the odds were mounted high against the said kingdom; the women folk (who completely understood thier vulnerabilities) willing chose death or suicide rather than face rape and humiliation at the hands of thier enemies.
it is purly a decision borne out of self respect and self preservence.
There is nothing holy or religious about the whole thing.
even in times of peace (the male member being the sole-bread earner of the family) a widow may choose to end her own life rather than face the cruel and oppertunist world alone.
even in todays world we see people commiting suicide for far smaller reasons. one example being students commiting suicide when they do not get expected results in exams. now tell me what is so holy or unholy about that? If you ask women today their choice between rape and death many would still chose death so you see it is rather a personal thing than a religious act.
5) cuting of nose and ears – I dont know for sure if it was a rule of thumb to cut womenfolk’s nose and ears or not but laxman’s act had a reason. it was meant to instigate ravana into taking a panga with lord ram so that his tyranny could be ended.
6) Death Penalty for adultery – Though i am principaly against capital punishment i may dearsay that some crimes are and will remain worthy of it. Again as i am not an expert at the old ways but my personal opinion is that breaking a spouse’s trust is the worst form of cruelty a person might show. and it is directed against a person who has placed his/her complete trust in you. ( i mean if you cant trust your spouse who can you really trust; think about it for a moment sir, put yourself in the aggrieved party’s shoes and only then can you comprehend the pain it may cause.) Having said that i would also like to clarify that this holds true for both man & women.
7) property rights and dowry – As with everything else things have been so distored by vested intrested people that they have lost thier original usages.
These two issues which have now become the icons of woman exploitation are a master stroke of social genius according to me.
imagine this-
There are two siblings “A” & “B”
they live at the same house, play the same games and usually enjoy all other things together. and then they become mature and of employable age.
It is mutually and amicably decided that “A” would live with his parents and look after them (in their old age), manage the family business and basically run the family as a unit.
And “B” has to shift away from the residence (for sake of convinience lets say he has to move to another town). Now what should a prudent family head do? If I be asked i would say that the family should give “B” his full and all share in the family fortune then and there so as not to cause a dispute in the future. and hence by extension of the same rule that “B” after getting his full and just share would not be entitled to any family fortune after that..
Now lets substitute these siblings with real people
“A” being the son
“B” being the daughter
now tell me sir where is anything wrong in it.
in order for us to call any custom good or bad we need to comprehend the logic behind the same.
9)not sleeping alone – no comments
10) women education – Sir as with dowry and paternal property rights of girl-child this is another issue which though considered as a symbol of women exploitation; must have started off as something else. but over the ages it has lost it’s original logic and has been distorted into something alien.
Now a days our Modern Education system has identified that mere bookish knowledge will only produce babu’s and not productive citizens and hence we have decided to impart useful and extra curricular skills to our children for them to become better humans and earning members of our society. in my school days i used to have a subject SUPW (socially useful productive work) and those of you from my era would agree that we used to laugh @ it. While me being from an only boys school had things like typing etc it is known that girls schools of our time did actually teach coocking and sewing to their students. Sir is it not possible that this same thing started off thousands of years ago and later it became so highly specialized division of labour that we errornously decided that bookish education (in principle itself) was un-important or useless for the girl child.This would bring us to another burning women lib issue of today i.e. why should it be the womenfolk who should cook and sew and the menfolk who earn the bread. In ancient times the only way to earn was either agriculture or trade. both of which reqired rigorous physical strength. and as nature has it men were chosen to serve the women eternally by working and labouring.
Sir the only point that i have been trying to make here is
It is not a prudent thing to label anything as right or wrong as it is the usage and not the principle that may be at fault.
a very live example would be
4-2×10/20+12-1=???
some people might say the answer is 12 but of course that is wrong.
now if we calculate the above sum by normal multiplication etc we may arrive @ a wrong answer
but if we analyse the sum and use the correct bodmas formula we cannot go wrong. the answer would be 14.
I am sorry to take so much of your valuable time
regards
Ashish Kumar Gupta
Delhi
India
Half knowledge is always dangerous to self and more than that to others who listen to or read about it. You have picked up small things from vedas and books and quoted what was written( if that is correct) but you have not gone behind the words and understood the real meaning(bhav) of the stuff wirtten. I think rather than writing these half baked stories and misinterpreting quotes without proper facts and strong references you should not go on propogate these fundas on net(if that is what u want to do). You need to focus on real issues present right now affecting Indians in India rather than pulling old stuff from the graves and go ga ga about it. It is very easy to go and sit in cushy environment in any western country and write this kind of stuff but very difficult to actually to do something for your country or countrymen facing the problem staying with in the country. I can go on and write a lot of things but I just don’t wan’t to, I think you should be a part of constructive journalism and of the positive wave to face and address the issues rather writing meaningless stories with no positive effect. Every society has had and still has it’s problems and underdogs. We need to correct them.
This is nothing but just nonsense. try, try, and try but the maze you are weaving here will fall and the truth will be triumphant. false translation, have any knowledge of sanskrut? or trying to be prey to you know it better. Regards.