Page 112 - Magazine 22-23 Qty.cdr

English Articles
Prof. Prajakta S. Raut

beyond his comprehension. To quote Lord Alfred Tennyson's The Princess (1847):
“Man for the field and woman for the heart”

Man for the sword and for the needle she,
Man to command and wom”an to obey,

All else confusion.”
This pervasive spade of patriarchy literally blocked the participation of women in social, political and economic
activities and adversely affected the economic development of nations.

In India, the position of women is a paradox right from the Vedic period to the current era. During the Vedic period,
women were shown in a positive role as powerful, benevolent, destroyers of evil and enjoying a dignified and powerful
status in society with the freedom of expression and attaining excellence in various activities. The best remembered
among the accomplished women of those times are Gargi, Maitreyi and Vak. Marriage however, was still considered to be
the prime necessity of a woman's life. The bridegroom used to go to the bride's house and bring her to his own house. In

that new home, she was 'offered' an honoured place as the mistress of the household, looking after her aged father-in-law,
mother-in-law and her husband's brothers and sisters. Thanks to the complementary role of women to men as propounded
by Lord Vishnu in 'Vishnu Purana' women enjoyed a position of fair privilege.
“Sri, the bride of Vishnu, the mother of the world is eternal, imperishable. As he is all- pervading, so she is omnipresent.
Vishnu is meaning, she is speech; he is polite, she's prudence; he understanding and she intellect; he righteousness and she

devotion. In a word, Vishnu is all that is called Male and Lakshmi all that is termed female; there is nothing else than
they.”
But it was only in later Vedic society that the status of women got deteriorated since they were denied their right to educate

themselves and further havoc was caused by the Aryan Varna - Caste System. Unlike in the Vedic era, she did not get
recognized as a human, but just as a wife and mother. With the advent of 'The Laws of Manu', which stated that a woman
does not deserve any freedom a variety of restrictions were imposed on women and her status dipped even lower. The
only duties in which women were expected to spend their life were the home and the hearth and child bearing and caring.
Some of them were reduced to the level of 'birth machines '. What appears to be paradoxical is that on the one hand, a
woman was honoured as a goddess or a queen despite plenty of evidence that she had to live according to the dictates of
man being marginalized and powerless. To protect her dignity, wars were fought in Ramayana and Mahabharata. In a

male hegemonic later Vedic society, women were always relegated to a secondary position. The same sorry state is
getting perpetuated even in the twenty-first century. Down the ages, men have enjoyed all possible freedom and their
misbehavior is not only pardoned, but many a time glamorized and even respected through the sugarcoating of
'purushartha'. In contrast to this, women have always been subjected to severe social and religious restrictions. They have
always had to depend upon and grow in the shadow of some male throughout their life. To add fuel further was
internalized oppression that they got subjected to, moulding women according to the needs of men reached to the level of

climax when the admiration for women was to be called as 'pativrata'. How far was the husband a 'patnivrati' is altogether
a matter of another research:

100 “When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?" (Sydney J. Harris)

HINDUJA HORIZONS 2022 -2023