condition of women in Maharashtra during the mediaeval period
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Along-with the invasion of the country by the Muslims, the position of women declined further. The Muslim period witnessed several indicators of low status of women, particularly the Hindu women. The child marriage became a rule to safeguard the chastity and honour of the girls. In many cases the Hindu girls were given in marriage before the age of nine or ten. This clearly indicated that the Hindu girls were denied education.
Polygamy and ‘purdah’ system were ‘practiced during the Muslim period. Women were restrained through the ‘purdah’ system and the movement outside the home was checked. Thus the purdah system affected their education. It also made women dependent on men for external work.
Polygamy was very commonly practiced among the higher class Hindus. The Hindu widow spent her days in the most pathetic condition. The practice of child marriage resulted in rapid increase in the number of child widows. The death of a woman was preferred to her falling into evil hands. The practice of ‘Sati’ was encouraged and the widows who did not perform ‘Sati’ were looked down upon by the society.
Sankaracharya lived during the eighth century. The first Muslim invasion also took place in this century. Sankaracharya had taken the leadership of the Hindu society. He engaged himself in evolving the Hindu Society. Sankaracharya reemphasized the supremacy of Hinduism to face the expanding Buddhism. He stressed on giving equal status to women.
India faced the second invasion by the Muslims in the eleventh century. Mohmmad Ghazni conquered India. From this time till the mid-eighteenth century, India experienced the breakdown of social institutions, the upsetting of traditional political structure and economic depression. All these had effect on the social life, specially among women. However, during the fifteenth century Ramanujacharya organized the Bhakti movement.
The movement brought new trends in the social and religious life of Indian women. Saints like Chaitanya, Nanak, Meera, Kabir, Ramdas, Tulsi and Tukaram propagated in favour of women’s right to worship. The Bhakti movement opened the gate of religious freedom to women. This, in turn, resulted in securing some social freedom too. First, the Purdah system was abolished.
Secondly women became free from the circumscribed domestic life by attending the religious prayers like ‘Kirtans’. Thirdly, a saint could not leave his family to become a ‘Sanyasi’ without the consent of his wife. This emphasized the importance of wife in the Grihastashram. Fourthly, women were entitled to education through the reading of religious books. Thus, the Bhakti movement had some positive effect on the social status of women. But it could not uplift the economic status. The women continued to be dependent on the males for their maintenance
Two principal schools of the Hindu Law of Inheritance emerged during this period, the Mitakshara and the Dayabhaga. Under the Dayabhaga school, Vijnaneswara supported the right of a widow to succeed to the entire estate of her husband in the absence of a male child. However, Vijnaneswara approved of the women’s right only when her husband was separated from and not united with his coparceners. Under the Dayabhaga school, a woman was allowed to inherit the property of a male relation notwithstanding the status of separation or jointness of women with the coparceners in order to check any drift in the family property.
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