The document discusses the status and rights of women in ancient Indian society from Vedic times to the present. It notes that during the Vedic period, women had relatively high status and rights, including access to education and property inheritance. Over time, texts like the Manusmriti and practices like child marriage, sati, and purdah emerged to restrict women's freedoms. By the medieval period, women lost many legal rights and social status. While reforms have improved women's rights under law in modern India and Bangladesh, full equality and protection of Hindu women's rights has yet to be achieved according to the document.

3. The Post-Vedic age extends from
1000 B.C. to 500 B.C.
The Early Vedic begins from 1500 B.C.

5. From 4th century B.C to 3rd century B.C. girls were given
education. There existed the initiation ceremony or Upanayana,
for both girls and boys.
If they wanted to pursue knowledge without getting married,
they were allowed to do so, without any constraints.

6. The educators divided women into two groups
Brahmavadinis - life-long students of theology and philosophy
Sadyodvahas - the latter used to prosecute their studies till
their marriage at the age of 15 or 16.

7. A young daughter who has observed Brahmacharya (i.e.
finished her studies) should be married to a bridegroom who
like her is learned.
(Yajur-Veda VIII. 1)

9. Unmarried daughters had share in their fathers’
property.
Daughter had full legal rights in the property of her
father in the absence of any son.

10. Mother’s property, after her death, was equally divided
among sons and unmarried daughters.
However, married women had no share in father’s
property.

11. As a wife, a woman had no direct share in her
husband’s property.
A widowed mother had some rights.

12. As per the marriage hymn of Rigveda, the wife is
the co-owner of the family property along with her
husband.

13. Stridhan- The term is used to denote property over
which women are allowed to have their own
absolute right in normal times. property like
ornaments, jewellery, costly apparel etc.

15. Eight forms of marriages
Brahma
Daiva
Prajapatya
Arsha
Gandharva
Asura
Rakshasa
Paishacha

16. Scholars agree that in the Rig-Vedic period, it
was unheard of that a girl should be married before
the age of 16. The fact that a young marriage was
not recommended.

17. An unmarried learned daughter should be married to a
bridegroom who like her is learned. Never think of giving
in marriage a daughter of very young age.
(Rig Veda III 55:16)

18. The girls and boys of the Rig Vedic society had freedom to
choose their partners in life
Ancient and early medieval Hindu society did not practice
Dowry or Sati
During this time intercaste marriages took place in society.
People were given absolute freedom to choose their caste

19. Monogamy was normal.
Yet there are instances where polygamy is distinctly
recorded. The rich, kings and ruling section of the society
were practicing polygamy

20. As in the case of a widower, the widows are allowed to marry
again. The funeral hymn in Vedas exhorts widow to marry the one
who holds her hand is willing to marry
Atharveda too mentions of women marrying second time.

22. The goddess is viewed as central in Shakti and Saiva Hindu
tradition.
The 10th chapter of the Rigveda for example, asserts the
feminine to be the supreme principle behind all of cosmos, in
the following hymn called as Devi Sukta.

23. Rig Vedic society was free from social evils
like female infanticide, sati and
childmarriage.

24. Women attended fairs and festivals and were free to move
about with their husbands or loved ones. They were allowed
to attend Sabhas or assemblies of the learned ones.
Women never observed purdha in the Vedic period.

25. The woman was regarded as having an equally important
share in the social and religious life because a man
without woman was considered as an inadequate person

26. Women are mentioned and are participants in the philosophical
debates of the Upanishads, as well as scholars, teachers and
priestesses during the Vedic age. Exmp: Gargi and Maitreyi.
Women not only composed hymns but were also well-versed in
sacred texts. Women also used to learn music and dancing

27. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (800 BCE)-
As a husband, man should cook rice for the wife.

28. In the Hindu epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, the role
of women is mixed.
In the Ramayana Sita is respected, honored and seen as
inseparable beloved but presented as a homemaker. The
Ramayana illustrates the Hindu ideal women of India.

29. In Mahabharata we find instances where women gave
counsel and advice to men on social and religious issues.
Women had an effective role in social and political life of
the then society.

30. No man, even in anger, should ever do anything that is
disagreeable to his wife; for happiness, joy, virtue and everything
depend on the wife. Wife is the sacred soil in which the husband is
born again, even the Rishis cannot create men without women.
— Adi Parva,
Mahabharata Book,
1.74.50-51

33. Women are deprived of the Upanayana ceremony
and thereby of education
The saints encouraged women to read religious
books and to educate themselves but they were
deprived of any institutional education

35. The Smriti writers like Manu and Narada forbade a
widow to inherit her husband's property. They gave the
right of inheritance to sapindas or kinsmen.

36. Manu deprives women of her economic rights also. He says,
“A wife, a son and a slave, these three are declared to
have no property, the wealth which they earn is for him to
whom they belong”.

38. Manu approved only three forms of marriage such as:-
Brahma, where the father himself invites a learned man of Vedas to marry his
daughter
Daiva where the girl is married to a priest who conducts a sacrifice, and the
Arsha where the bride groom offers a cow and bull or two pairs of the same
to the father of the bride.

39. Remarriage was allowed for men:-
If the wife was barren
if she had only daughters
if she was quarrelsome by nature
A prudent man should not marry a maiden who has no brothers.

40. Manu even makes provisions for punishments of a woman by
her husband, if ever she committed any faults. She should be
beaten with a rope or a split bamboo.

41. Widow remarriage was forbidden. According to him a widow
should remain faithful to her husband's memory. But a
widower could marry again in order to conduct the sacrificial
rites.

42. Child marriage was common.
The childwidows were ill-treated by the society. They were forced to
live a life full of restrictions. They were excluded from all auspicious
ceremonies and were looked down upon as ominous beings.

43. Kautilya's Artha Sastra reveals the status of woman as a child-bearing
machine.
Thus the Rig Vedic concept of "Sahadharmini" or equal partner was
replaced by the “Pativrata Dharma” or the duties of a chaste wife who
would fulfill the wishes of her husband without questioning them.

44. Divorce was not granted.
Dowryor Satipractices likely became widespread
(sometime in the 2nd millennium CE)

46. In other verses Manusmriti declares that.
“Women must be honored and adorned “
“Where women are revered, there the gods rejoice; but where they are not, no
sacred rite bears any fruit ".
“A woman must never seek to live independently".

47. During the time of Kautilya, women began to be treated as a chattel, had
no separate identity of her own.
By 200 B.C. pre-pubescent marriages became the order of the day. The
general belief was that if women were given freedom, they would
transgress the limits.

48. There arose a tendency to picture woman as a weak-minded individual
who is prone to all infirmities, who needs protection and disciplining
throughout her life.
Women had no recognized place in society was revealed in the laws
pertaining to marriage, divorce, property rights and right of inheritance

49. Manu insisted that a woman should never be allowed any
freedom and that a woman should always worship her
husband as a god.

50. “Father protects (her) in childhood, husband protects (her)
in youth, and sons protect (her) in old age. A woman cannot
be left unprotected.”
(MS 9.3)

51. Panini III,2,36, which yields "Asuryampashya
Raja-darah" which means those who do not see
the sun, that is, the wives of a king.“

52. "A woman who goes out during day time, to
sports or to see a woman or spectacle shall pay
a fine of six panas.“
- Kautilya's Artha Sastra

53. A husband, even if he is wicked,
should be worshipped by the wife
as her lord and master.
-Kautilya

54. Purdah Pratha, Sati Pratha, Child marriage
system, Girl killing system, Polygamy etc. were
the main social evils of this period.

55. During the 15th Century, the situation underwent some
change. The Bhakti movement introduced new trends. The
saints like Chaitanya, Nanak, Kabir, Meera, Ramdas and
Tulsi stood for the right of women to religious worship.

56. The situation was like as Emily Dickinson ironically
articulated in one of her poems:
They put me in the closet because they liked me still.

58. According to Bangladesh Law Hindu women only get a
limited share. They inherit life interest in the property.
There are five female Sapindas according to the Dayabagha
law (widow, daughter, mother, father's mother and the
mother of father's father).

59. No other female relation is recognised as heir. A
daughter cannot receive any property and cannot
get life interest in the presence of son, grand son
and great grand son.

60. The ‘Hindu Marriage Registration Bill-2012’ authorises
government authorities to appoint a Hindu Marriage
Registrar at every ward and upzilla across the country.
The registrar will not register marriage of a woman
below 18 years of age and a man under 21 years.

61. As per a 1946 law, Hindu women can
file cases with courts to only regain the
rights to conjugal life.

62. Hindu women can file cases under
Family Court Ordinance 1985,
Dowry Act 1980 and Women and
Children Repression Act 2003.

63. Existing laws are too
inadequate to protect the
Hindu women's rights.