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24 SUKUMARi Ul 1A1TACI1ARJI

pervcrse woman.^{4,24 4} The wife may not evcn pcrform religious dulies, undertake vows, givc gitts or do any othcr rilualistic pious acls wilhout the husband's cxprcss pcrmission.’^{25 44} A wilc does not atlain hcavcn ihrough vows, fasting or othcr pious acts; she atlains hcavcn only by worshipping hcr husband.^4,26

. By the timc we rcach the Epie and Dharmaśaslra age, dowry was an acceplcd institution in arranged marriages. ⁴⁴... whethcr labor or cash was nccdcd, marricd women wcre cxpectcd to conlribute it... The organizalion of produclion... dcmandcd thal women be contributing mcmbcrs of the lamily economy. ⁴⁴²⁷ When hcr eontribulion came as dowry, stridhana, saud&yika or yautaka, she could hardly cvcr cxcrcise any conlrol ovcr it, allhough somc Saslras stipulalc againsl the in-laws using it.²⁸ Y2jflavalkya, however, lcavcs plcnty of loopholcs likc lamily nccds, laminę, pious undcrlakings, etc. when the bride ⁴s propcrty could be uscd.²⁹ So the wife posscssed no propcrty of her own; yel she was cxpected to supcrvise the asscts and liabililics, the incomc and expcnscs of the lamily, as DraupadT was cntrustcd wilh the llnances of the Pandavas. During the husband ⁴s absencc the wife could only meet the routine cxpcnditurc; she could not make any llnancial transaction or givc any gifls on hcr own. The SiIstras stipulate that ⁴⁴ for the giving away or sale of childrcn the couplc should take the dceision joinlly. The wife cannot give away or adopt childrcn wilhout the husband ⁴s exprcss conscnt.^4,30 The scparate mcntion of the wife rcminds us that this dictum regarding joint conscnt was not strictly adhcrcd to as in the cascs of the sales of Sunahśepha, Rohilaśva or Vessantara⁴s childrcn in the Jataka. The ‘fallcn* mother had to be fcd by the son, no mother is ⁴ fallcn⁴ to hcr son.³¹

The wife⁴s posilion of rcspccl in hcr homc dependcd largely on whether she had sons. ⁴ A barrcn woman or a mother of slill-born childrcn was vrsalT,

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an untouchable oulcastc.’³² The barrcn wilc could be discardcd in the eighlh ycar aflcr marriage, a mother of slill-born sons in the icnlh ycar, in the clcvcnth a mother of girl childrcn only.³²* So the wil'e’s primary value lay in hcr abilily to produce małe childrcn.

Socicty, lamily and the husband expeclcd the wife to discharge hcr duties to them by working for the husband and in-laws and by producing małe childrcn. She was not rccognizcd as a fuli Citizen, she could not attend the sabhS or stunili , where collcctive dccisions regarding the communily were taken. In ritual also mantras wcre not uttered during a ritc where she waś conccmcd.³³ We must remember, ho*vcvcr, thal the scriptures generally cover the codcs of bchaviour of the three upper castcs and of the comparatively alllucnt scction of these castcs. Bclow, the women behavcd much as they plcascd; their life was detennined also by the pressing cconomic nceds. The upper class women, quitc soon aller the advcnt of the Vcdie Aryans, were rcleased from hcavy outdoor productivc labour. From the vanquished pre-Aryans, captives and s!avcs wcre brought over who perfonned the heavy