Position of women under Hindu Law

Pages: 89-90
Anand Kumar (Singhania University, Singhania, Rajasthan)

The present paper attempts to review the status of women in Hindu law. In the early Hindu society the status of women was an enviable one. They could avail of the highest learning and there were many seers and philosophers among them. Ghosha, Apala, Lopamudra, Vishwvara, Surya, Indrani, Yami, Romasha – all these names highlight the position and the esteem which Hindu women enjoyed in the Vedic period. At that time there was not a single area where women did not take part or excel their counterpart’s – men.Hindu Society has a flexible social structure. The social System of Hindus is based on Vedic and sastric ideology. The wife in Vedic literature occupies the position of ‘ardhangini’. It suggests that there was equality between men and women in the Vedic period. But in the later periods after the invasion of foreigners and mixing of the exterior ideas women were given the inferior position.