DAILY LIFE IN ANCIENT INDIA

Beyond these rigid social stratifications was the Indian family. Not only was life centered around the family, but the family, not the individual, was the most basic unit in society.

The Family 

The ideal social unit was an extended family, with three generations living under the same roof. It was essentially patriarchal, except along the Malabar coast, near the southwestern tip of the subcontinent, where a matriarchal form of social organization prevailed down to modern times. In the rest of India, the oldest male traditionally possessed legal authority over the entire family unit. The family was linked together in a religious sense to ancestral members by a series of commemorative rites. Family ceremonies were conducted to honor the departed and to link the living and the dead. The male family head was responsible for leading the ritual. At his death, his eldest son had the duty of conducting the funeral rites.
The importance of the father and the son in family ritual underlined the importance of males in Indian society. Male superiority was expressed in a variety of ways. Women could not serve as priests (although some were accepted as seers), nor were they normally permitted to study the Vedas. In general, males had a monopoly on education, since the primary goal of learning to read was to conduct family rituals. In high-class families, young men, after having been initiated into the sacred thread, began Vedic studies with a guru (teacher). Some then went on to higher studies in one of the major cities. The goal of such an education might be either professional or religious. Such young men were not supposed to marry until after twelve years of study.

Marriage

In general, only males could inherit property, except in a few cases where there were no sons. According to law, a woman was always considered a minor. Divorce was prohibited, although it sometimes took place. According to the Arthasastra, a wife who had been deserted by her husband could seek a divorce. Polygamy was fairly rare and apparently occurred mainly among the higher classes, but husbands were permitted to take a second wife if the first was barren. Producing children was an important aspect of marriage, both because children provided security for their parents in old age and because they were a physical proof of male potency. Child marriage was common for young girls, whether because of the desire for children or because daughters represented an economic liability to their parents. But perhaps the most graphic symbol of women’s subjection to men was the ritual of sati (often written suttee), which encouraged the wife to throw herself on her dead husband’s funeral pyre.
The Greek visitor Megasthenes reported ‘‘that he had heard from some persons of wives burning themselves along with their deceased husbands and doing so gladly; and that those women who refused to burn themselves were held in disgrace.’’ All in all, it was undoubtedly a difficult existence. According to the Law of Manu, an early treatise on social organization and behavior in ancient India, probably written in the first or second century B.C.E., women were subordinated to men---first to their father, then to their husband, and finally to their sons:

She should do nothing independently

even in her own house.

In childhood subject to her father,

in youth to her husband,

and when her husband is dead to her sons,

she should never enjoy independence...

Though he be uncouth and prone to pleasure,

though he have no good points at all,

the virtuous wife should ever

worship her lord as a god.

The Role of Women 

At the root of female subordination to the male was the practical fact that as in most agricultural societies, men did most of the work in the fields. Females were viewed as having little utility outside the home and indeed were considered an economic burden, since parents were obliged to provide a dowry to acquire a husband for a daughter. Female children also appeared to offer little advantage in maintaining the family unit, since they joined the families of their husbands after the wedding ceremony. Despite all of these indications of female subjection to the male, there are numerous signs that in some ways women often played an influential role in Indian society, and the Hindu code of behavior stressed that they should be treated with respect.
Indians appeared to be fascinated by female sexuality, and tradition held that women often used their sexual powers to achieve domination over men. The author of the Mahabharata, a vast epic of early Indian society, complained that ‘‘the fire has never too many logs, the ocean never too many rivers, death never too many living souls, and fair-eyed woman never too many men.’’ Despite the legal and social constraints, women often played an important role within the family unit, and many were admired and honored for their talents. It is probably significant that paintings and sculpture from ancient and medieval India frequently show women in a role equal to that of men, and the tradition of the henpecked husband is as prevalent in India as in many Western societies today.

The Position of Women in Ancient India

An indication of the ambivalent attitude toward women in ancient India is displayed in this passage from the Law of Manu, which states that respect for women is the responsibility of men. At the same time, it also makes clear that the place of women is in the home.

The Law of Manu

Women must be honored and adorned by their father, brothers, husbands, and brother-in-law who desire great good fortune.
Where women, verily, are honored, there the gods rejoice, where, however they are not honored, there all sacred rites prove fruitless.
Where the female relations live in grief—that family soon perishes completely; where, however, they do not suffer from any grievance—that family always prospers...
The father who does not give away his daughter in marriage at the proper time is censurable; censurable is the husband who does not approach his wife in due season; and after the husband is dead, the son, verily is censurable, who does not protect his mother.
Even against the slightest provocations should women be particularly guarded; for unguarded they would bring grief to both the families.

Regarding this as the highest dharma of all four classes, husbands though weak, must strive to protect their wives. His own offspring, character, family, self, and dharma does one protect when he protects his wife scrupulously...
The husband should engage his wife in the collections and expenditure of his wealth, in cleanliness, in dharma, in cooking food for the family, and in looking after the necessities of the household...
Women destined to bear children, enjoying great good fortune, deserving of worship, the resplendent lights of homes on the one hand and divinities of good luck who reside in the houses on the other—between these there is no difference whatsoever.

By William J. Duiker & Jackson J. Spielvoger in the book "World History", Wadsworth (Cengage Learning) U.S.A, 2010, excerpts p.50-51. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

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