| Hence
the ideal placed before the Hindu woman is that of the ideal Grihini,
who again is an ideal wife, an ideal friend and an deal mother all
rolled into one. It is Sita, Savitri, Damayanti and Gandhari the
songs of the Hindu soil that have inspired the lives of millions of
Hindu women for aeons, and not Helens or Juliets.
Women had plenty of freedom in the
Vedic and Epic age. They had equal opportunities and scope,
especially in the religious and spiritual fields. They could undergo
the Upanayana sacrament, study the Vedas, become teachers or even
ascetics if they wished. But during the middle ages there was a
criminal neglect of their welfare. |
