Sthree Dharma

[ravinder]

Prologue - It is understood that when adharm is the highest, God takes avtar to set the cycle of dharm in motion. Just one or two centuries before Al Beruni, India was blessed with Adi Shankaracharya, to whose Panchyatna and Shanmat efforts one can attribute the tolerance now so ingrained in Hinduism. However old prejudices dont die overnight and by the time Al Beruni came to India, the society was still in poor moral condition, amply corroborated by Al Beruni's writings. Probably it was only karmic that a country that allowed itself to fall from the honorable moral standards expounded by Maharishi Vyasa and Vasudeva, that are clearly mentioned even by Al Beruni, could only have been taken over by foreigners. The relation between the status of women's development and the family's and society's welfare is all too clearly understood by everybody but the unrightous kind (just look at the Islamic countries - poor status of women=poor status of civilization). A society that treats the weak unfairly, is a society let by the Rajsic & the Tamsic and can only get trampled under the feet of foreign rule.





Pls note the Pages 154 and 155 of the following link.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/...&left=70px



What you will note that the ills of dowry were not present (Al Beruni mentions small gifts by husband to wife instead. Something that was prelevant even uptill my grandfathers times in my native Uttrakhand) but ills like polygamy was tolerated, perhaps this laxity was even exploited by the corrupted people of those times. Fear of ill treatment of widowed women is also mentioned (something that continues to this day). Prostitution was also allowed and menfolk seem to have lost the sense of balance in there relationship towards women. The stupidity of child marriage is mentioned to be common (something that continues to this day in certain sections of our society).



Also pls note this link

http://www.thisismyindia.com/ancient_ind...india.html



Shows as the agrarian Shruti traditions were being forgoten and complexities of growing population was forcing the draft of ever newer laws the condition to women was suffering.



Caveat – As far as I have read Al Beruni, seems like he is trying honestly to portray the state of affairs during the time he was in India. However, at some place he mentions something to the effect that Indian philosophy was not very well developed, obviously a wrong comment. So anything said by Al Beruni w.r.t. the times before Al Beruni, may not be taken at face value and care is advisable. He was probably relying on others to tell him about the then history of India, who themselves were not better informed.