Bock You are Visitor NumberIt is strange that ages after Manu made his code, some people in modern India try to defend this primitive barbaric attitude towards women and take pride in saying that he was just to the fair sex. The reformers call Manua hater of woemn and the orthodox call him lover of women. But, in fact, he was neither. He was no better and no worse than most ancients in their general attitude towards women.
All ancient societies treated women as a property on which the owner had absolute power. If we own and use a thing that cannot exist by itself, it means it needs protection and care. Generally we love what we own. A man loves his radio, his watch, his vehicle and his clothes. He takes great care to prevent others from handling them and is over vigilant in maintaining them in good order and guarding against premature decay, because the things he owns must be in good condition to meet his wants.
This is what the ancients did with regard to the property of the category of women. That women were property, is indicated in Shloka: Meither by sale nor by repudiation is a wife released from her husband (Manu:II:46). Sale and repudiation unilaterally are some of the ingrediants of property, whether animate or inanimate. In Mannu's code, women are many times equated with slaves who also constituted property.
Queen or Cage Bird In defence of Manu, the traditionalits trot out the following texts: women must be honoured and adored by their fathers, brothers, husbands and brothers-in-law; if women live in greif, the family will perish; woman can curse if kept unhappy; there will be radiant happiness where the husband and the wife are very pleased with each other, particularly when the later takes care to make herself beautiful and attractrive (Manu III:55 to 62). They further contend that according to manu woman was the mistress or queen of the house.
To this it may be said that the above things could easily be said in respect of the house dog, cows, horses, children and slaves. If one is to be happy, contented and peaceful, one must keep all these well-fed, well cared, and fully protected against outside interference or danger.
The rule that a female must be subject to the control of her father, husband or son and should never be independant (Manu:V:148) is explained away as aone calling not for subjection but for protection, oblivious of the fact thatbthe same is true of the children, domestic animals and slaves and even inanimate property. Being intimately connected by man, women will natrully be treated better as memebers of family than slavish legal position. In roman law of old, there was the same rule entailing tutela perpetua mulierum ('The perpetual guardianship of the female.)
Unhappy Life A degraded widow's life was her unhappy lot. Besides prohibiting divorce and remarriage for her under any cicumstances, she was asked to treat her husband as her lord and god, whatever the charachetr of husband. "Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure else-where, or devoid of good qualities, yet a husband must be constantly worshipped as God by the faithful wife. (Manu: V:154).
The husband could repudiate her according to the shloka quoted above or simply put her away and take another wife. The perpetual guardianship of the economically dependant female has so denigrated her status that in some high caste famalies of South India, the mother and wife are addressed in third person like servants.
The fourth caste, the Shudras deprived of honourable existance, property, and education have been accorded a despicable existance in Manu's society. In order to emphasize the low status of women, Manu constantly classes them with the shudras and slaves. The following Shlokas bear that out:
"A wife, a son, a slave, a pupil and a younger brother who have commited faults may be beaten with the rope or a split bamboo." (Manu VIII:299)
"If a woman or a man of low caste performs any act leading to unhappiness, let it be practiced diligently" (Manu II:233).
"Let him who desires bodily purity first sip water three times and then twice wipe his mouth; but a woman and shudra shall perform each act once." (Manu:V:139).
"Like a shudra, a woman is entitled to only one sacrament, that is marriage." (Manu II:66-67, IX:126).
It was perhaps that the women were classified with the shudras that they were denies the four principal rights denies to the shudras, namely upanayam, property, education and independance.
Measures of Progress He goes on to say that the progress of culture and civilization of a societyis to be measured by the position occupied by the women in that society. Apart from this, the inculcaton of the idea of chastity and the faithfullness to the husband is never challenged even by moderns. But according to Manu (VIII:371), the punsihment for the adultress is that she should be thrown to the dogs for being devoured in a public place.
"It is the nature of the women to seduce men in the world; for that reason, the wise are never unguarded in the company of females." (Manu: II:213).
"Women are able to lead astray in this world not only a fool but also a learned man to make him a slave of desire or anger." (Manu: II: 214).
"One should not sit in a lonely place with one's mother, sister, daughter, for the senses are powerful and overpower even a learned man." (Manu:II:215).
"No man can completely guard woman by force." (Manu:IX:10).
"Women, confined in the house under trustworthy and obedient servants are not well guarded." (Manu:IX:12).
"Women do not care for beauty, nor is their attention fixed on age. It is enough that he is a man; they give themselves to the handsome and the Ugly." (Manu: IX:14).
According to the Manu (IX: 17) women love their beds, seats, ornaments; impure desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice and bad conduct from parts of their nature.
No Right to Property This is a poor consolation for mankind. No wonder that Manu and his colleagues of Ancient India, prohibited women from getting education and particularly from studying sanskrit, just like the Shudras, so that they might never know and challenge the authority of the shastras, however unfair these may be to them. Women have been defamed in all the literatures of the ancient world. But in no language and religin have been criticised so vituperatively as in Sanskrit and Hinduism.
Manu is specific in denying education and property to women, for he knew very well, that these two benifits are the very things that can never go with slavery, poverty and dependance. Deny education nd property to a caste or group and you ensure their subservience and prevent their competition and the demand for equality. Manu made sure about this so far as the shudras, Chandals and women were concerned. He laid down thus :
"A wife, a son, and a slave, these three are declared to have no property; the wealth which they earn is acquired for him to whom they belong." (Manu VIII: 416).
"For women, no sacramental rite is performed with sacred texts. Women destitute of strength and knowledge of the Vedas are as impure as falsehood itself." (Manu IX:18).
It was Raja Ram Mohan Roy who started the first school for the girls in Calcutta in 1825. It was not untill the passing of the Hindu Women's right to Property Act in 1937 that a limited estate was available to the Hindu Widow from her husband's property, thus freeing her from the dependance of the son and the other relations of her husband. And no son could have a private property of his own when educated from family funds untill the passing of the Hindu Gains of Learning Act in 1930.
That Manu's law is pure male law is further confirmed by the provision requiring a woman to provifde her husband with a son, even when he was unfit to produce one himself from his wife. The male wanted to avoid being sent to hell called put. So the obsession to have a son was so hard with the law-maker that any shameful device was welcome. Manu says that a childless wife may obtain an offspring by cohabiting with the sapinda of her husband with the permission of the elders. (Manu: IX: 59).
Even if she had no desire to have an offspring she would be forced to do so at the instance of the husband or his elders. "The man appoited for her may approach her during the night silently." (Manu: IX:60). If the progeny happens to be a femle and dies after thee birth if it is a male, a second child may be begotten of a widow. (Manu: IX: 62).
There can be no greater ignominy for women than that they should be asked to undertake the niyog in secret and in shame, all for the superstitious purpose of giving the son to the husband alive or dead, so that son would perform ceremonies and sacrafices to save he man's soul from hell. Women, of course had no souls worth saving in the Manu's code.
Niyog has been disapproved in the later Shlokas but not wholly condemned. While begetting a child froma man other than husband, the woman was also unnatrully called upon to have a carnal desire in the process and also not to continue the intercourse with the man after the purpose has been served. (Manu: IX:62-63).
Since the time of the founding of Indain National Congress in 1885, the English educated women in INdia had been agitating for the improvement of their status. Earlier, because of Brahmo Samaj Movement,a many Acts validating intercaste marriage, widow marriages and intercommunal marriages has been passed. Thansks to Independance, the new Hindu Code has been passed in 1956 and 1957 to remedy the age-old insults and greviances of the Hindu Women. The new Hindu Code is a complete charter of women's rights to equate their status with that of the men and place the Indian women alongside the women of the progressive nations of the world.