Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 243

218
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
IV
Similarly in the middle class family, Utpalā, the wife of Sankha Sresthi of Srāvastī occupied an honourable position as the co-partner of her husband in his life and religion, while in the houseless roving family of the Mankha couple Bhadrā" is found following her husband, Mankhali as a devoted companion in the up and down journeys of his life by experiencing all kinds of hardship'.
All these evidences from the Bhs clearly show that the woman held a position of honour and dignity as wife in the family as well as in the society. Institution of Guarding Women
The Bhs shows that the 'Institution of guarding women' was maintained by the royal and rich aristocratic families where A veil of privacy was forced on the ladies who lived in the inner famale appartment (anteura= antah pura) provided with a large retinue of their respective attendants and other paraphernalia.
It is learnt further that a married lady of the royal family could not appear at the outer assembly hall in public prior to her attainment of motherhood, as it is evidenced in the case of Prabhāvati Devī, the queen of king Bala of Hastināpura".
There is no doubt about it that a restriction was put on the social freedom of the women by not allowing the right of free movement to them before the attainment of their motherhood.
Behind this system of their seclusion there was probably the prevailing theory that the woman should be kept at home throughout her life under the protections of her father in childhood up to the stage of marriage, then her husband in youth after marriage and her son in old age respectively.
But there are the evidences to show that the ladies in the royal and aristocratic families appear in public in the company
1 Bhs, 15, 1, 540. 2 I6, 15, 1, 540, $ 16, 3, 1, 134 ; 9, 33, 380; 11, 9, 417;11, 11, 428. 4 Ib, 11, 11, 428.