Author: Anu Kumari & Dr. Manasi Das
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.70798/Bijmrd/03020004
Abstract: There is little information currently accessible about women’s status and influence in Indian society. However, it is frequently the case that an occurrence involving them gives us some information about their status and place in the social and cultural life of the time. There was no mention of child marriage or even the segregation of women in those days. Women and men had equal status during this time. Their access to public life was complete. Some of them wrote Vedic mantras like Apala and Shakshi, demonstrating their high level of education. After getting married, Mudra had a significant position and had a lot of control over household issues. Without her, no religious ceremony could be considered complete. Only after they reached puberty did they get married. They held great social respect as mothers, wives, and daughters. In the centuries following the Vedic Age, women’s standing had clearly declined. New faces appeared on the Indian scene with the arrival of Islam. In their own country, Muslims routinely required women to wear tight veils. Naturally, it was subjected to more hardship in a foreign nation like India. Theposition of women suffered a significant setback during this time. The sentiments of the Age are mirrored in AamirKhusro’s “Hast Bahist” and Matla-Ul-Anwar, which offer his advice to his daughter.”Would to God that you should have been in the will of nonexistence or that you could have been a male child or were born in the eighth month (so as to die)” is how he begins his speech. Despite the fact that our historians have written about women in their respective eras, they have not done them justice. We are fortunate to have a few eminent historians who have attempted to do so. Restrictions. Because of her physical limitations, she was expected to accept a status of reliance on men.
When Jaisi states, “You are women and deficient in the sense that man is fool who takes advice of women folk at home,” he may be reflecting the perception of the populace. Manu smriti, which states that “day and night women must be kept under dependence by the males of their families,” supports his viewpoint. Women are never fit for independence; her father shields her when she is young, her husband shields her when she is old, and her son shields her when she is old.
Women’s rights are fundamental to civilization. When it came to inheritance, Muslim women were treated much more liberally than their Hindu counterparts. The way property is divided following a father’s death—a daughter gets half of her brother’s estate—is an example of this. However, the limitations resulting from married or unmarried women being taught by men persisted throughout the Muslim regime. According to the Adab-Ul-Hasab’s author, a wife should not be trusted with matters of concern, and if consulting her was inevitable, it would be wiser to act against her advice. The social norms were not disregarded by the Muslims.She was thought to be foolish and mentally weak. Their personal position was impacted by the doctrine of perpetual tutelage, which required them to maintain chastity in both their thoughts and behaviour. “A woman cannot give away her husband’s belongings.” Except in cases involving the women, she was never to be asked to testify in court. Men served as the guardians of women’s honour and virginity. As Dr.Asraf correctly noted, “an unhealthy attitude developed on all sides with the growth of general sensuality.” In the same ways that theypromoted men’s lack of chastity, they started to place an excessive amount of value on women’s chastity. The spirit of the age with regard to the chastity of the women is reflected in Amir Khusro’sMaltla-Ul-Anwar: “ A girl on whom reflection were cast regarding her chastity could never expect to find any respectable person to marry her even though the accusations were proved to be absolutely groundless.’’ Rabia was a chaste and devout woman in those days. Even if she came from a lower social class, such a woman was revered. Women’s status may help us develop an understanding of the nation’s culture and civilization. Islam has significantly improved women’s status, eliminated discrimination against female birth, and the Quran affirms that women have just as many rights as obligations. In Islam, women are more than just toys for males. There was a great deal of social equality between men and women in India and other countries in many areas, such as inheritance, marriage contracts, dowries, divorce, and child rights, among others, rather than inferiority and completesubordination.
The long poetical discourse of Amir Khusro in the HashtBahist and Matla-UlAnwar containing his councils to his daughter, Mastura contains much that was not merely idealistic but political. He could not remain unaffected by his environment, by this Indian lineage from the mother’s side and therefore we find him counselling his daughter in the following words, “Though you are still very young and without understanding, one day you would become an elderly women when you attain wedlock and wealth, I would wish you first, purity, chastity and then good fortune.’’ He counselled her to be constant and devoted worshipper of God, to be a seeker of good name, to be abstinent and virtuous to remain indoors, and to keep her face bright within the four curtains (walls). “Live your life in such a way that by your behaviour and conduct you may be able to your kindred and relations. It is better that for the sake of good name, fame, purity and chastity you should lay your leg with the chain of your skirt (and do not go out).” Here our author uses many smiley and metaphors to strengthen his advice about observing pardah and dialects on the harm of mixing with the strangers.
Keywords: Indian Society, Women, precious, harm, Reflected, disability, Quran
Page No: 33-38