Women's Position During Medieval Society

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About the Book Ladies have very significant position in the society. They are home makers of their families actually. Since Vedic period they have been honored by male members. There are three phases of life of a woman "Girl, Wife and Mother". Every one had much respect in society previously But from medieval period their position started to get disgraced. Several wrong practices like Sati pratha, Perdah system, Child marriage etc.. started. Obviously it was not good sign for the society.

So, I felt to study and compare their positions between yesteryears and present. I wanted to focus on the Vedic, Medieval and current status of women particularly Hindus & Muslims, in this book.

The position of women as a mother was pious and respectable. The first lesson of a child starts in his mother's lap. So a mother plays a dominant role in influencing the character of her children, if the mother is good, gentle and God fearing the children will naturally inherit these virtues. Similarly she was respected as well. No one could proceed on a journey without seeking the blessings of his mother by touching her feat. In fact, Hindu law givers clearly pointed out that mother has to be respected more than the father. Rajputs showed greater respect and regard for their mothers. They used to pay respect to their mother before taking their meals. Great poet Jai Shankar Prasad has said:

"Woman, you are only faith, trust in the silver necklace. Piyush shed the source, in the beautiful plane of life."

About the Author Biodiversity is a product of nature. Service and safety to this biodiversity is service to nature and God. Dr. Yadav is a great servant of nature. He was born on February 13, 1956 in a simple farmer family of father Baidyanath Yadav and mother Jatadhari Devi at Mathia, P.S.- Lauriya of West Champaran district in Bihar. His early education started from local village school. Later he pursued higher education from B.R.A. Bihar University, Muzaffarpur and N.O.University, Patna.

He joined as a Science teacher in middle school Chamainiya Yogapatti in 1977. His service as a teacher has been quite admirable and got State education award in 1992 from BEP, Govt of Bihar. Later he got National Teachers Award (President Award) in 2001 from HRD, Govt of India. Meanwhile he was also awarded with "Medini Award" by Environment and Forest Deptt., Govt. of India in 2003 for his book "Champaran Ki Nadiyan". Several other institutions also came forward to honor him with several awards Viz... Gold Medal Award, Shiksha Ratna Award, Champaran Ratna Award.

Dr. Yadav is a meticulous environmentalist and author too. His books: "Champaran Ki Nadiyan", "Jal Prabandhan" "Paryavaran Ke Geet" "Paryavaran Sanskar", "An excellent grammar and composition" and” mai champaran hun" are being loved by readers. His other books "Rivers of Bihar" and "Rivers of India" is under publication. He has successfully taken the responsibility as an editor for magazines like "Sarvodaya" and "Valmiki", from 1998 to 2011. Currently his work as a Principal is being admired by persons. Praising him we are coming forward to wish him all the very best for his future. May God bless him..

Foreword This book is a magnificent work on status of women in medieval India. The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia. When we see through epics we found that women in ancient India enjoyed equal status with men in all aspects of life. Women were educated in early period. Rigvedic verses suggest that women married at a mature age and were provably free to select their own spouses. Scriptures such as the Rigveda and Upanishads mention several women sage and seers notably Apala, Gargi and Maitreyi. Indian women's position in society further deteriorated during the medieval period, when child-marriages and a ban on remarriage by widows became part of social life in some communities in India. The Muslim conquest in Indian subcontinent brought Pardah to Indian society. Jauhar Pratha emerged and Devdasies were sexually exploited. Women were confined to their home. In Muslim families women were restricted to Zanana area of house. Thus Hindu women as well as Muslim women both were deteriorated in their status.

This book "Comparative Study of Position of Hindu and Muslim Women during Medieval Society (1206-1526 AD)" is a pioneer work. The author of book has gone through manuscripts, epics and secondary sources of data to depict a comparative picture of status of women in medieval India. Hinduism and Islam both have specific cultural heritage but the status of women was not very different Jauhar, Devdasi, and Harem were those tradition that has deteriorated the status of women. The politics played through social relation such as marriages. He cleverly depicted the different picture of women as in the role of wife, sister; mother etc. Author tries to explain the status of widows in society, different rituals related to different occasions has been explained beautifully.

It hoped that this book will inspire further studies and analysis of status of women in Indian society and other important emerging issues related to women.

Preface The inspiration for undertaking the present dissertation came to me from my revered teacher Dr. P. K. Sinha Lecturer in History K.C.T.C. College, Raxaul. Himself a celebrated scholar of Medieval Indian History, he asked me to work on a comparative study of position of Hindu and Muslim women during the Mughal period and kindly agreed to supervise it. The Hindu and Muslim women of medieval period had not been paid. sufficient attention and there was no separate book on the topic. Hence it was necessary to work on the present topic. The fruitful research on the topic concerned will help students in surveying the actual position of Hindu women in society during medieval period. I hope this book will be useful not only to the scholars and literatures interested in the past but also to students of contemporary social affairs by indicating elements in our rich and composite heritage that have stood the test of time and deserve to be preserved.

The accounts of the foreign travelers, no doubt, constitute almost an indispensable contemporary source of Indian history, but what cannot be dispensed with, is not necessarily infallible. On the contrary, they also had their limitations. They did not know the country as a whole, rather they mostly visited the important cities and towns, and there too, their stay was very brief. As such, they generally remained aloof from the teeming millions, inhabiting the distant and secluded rural corners of this country. They were, in most cases, very inadequately informed about the history, traditions, religion and geography of this vast sub-continent. Unfamiliarity and lack of adequate knowledge about the things, Indians. often led to misunderstandings on their part. At times, they could not fully comprehend the inner significance of some of the long-established Indian customs and, as such, most of them were superficial, if not perfunctory, in their remarks about them. Besides, the accounts of these travelers often suffer from historical inaccuracies for obvious reasons. They had no easy access to the authentic chronicles of the country, and for information regarding the current events they had mostly to depend on secondary sources. Moreover, they were apt to get confused with unfamiliar foreign names, and the 17th century corruptions of Indian nomenclature probable made confusion worse confounded.

Introduction A female child was an unwanted guest in the family and treated as a curse, women's various forms as a daughter, as a sister, as a mother and as a wife are pitiable purity of women, women in religious sphere. education of women, marriage of women, age of marriage of women. early marriage as a curse. Pardah system of women. Sati system. Widowhood. Jauhar, Niyog system, Dowry Divorce. Monogamy. Polygamy, Polyandry, Role of maiden in setting marriage, profession of women as a house lady, as a teacher, as Laxmi, as a ruler, as a warrior, as a good friend, women's right and inheritance, local rights of women, female slaves, dress, cosmetics and ornaments and cultures.

Pre-Sultanate Period and Position of Women:

The state of a society is measured by the position of female group. That how much it is well-to-do and developed. In pre-sultanate period. women had to work in various spheres. Having to know vivid ideas of position of women in pre-sultanate age it is necessary to have a brief survey of the role they played in the preceding age in India. Women along with man, from time immemorial, have formed an integral part of social structure. They were helpful in all round progress of family and society. Their status or position is measuring yard for assessing the standard of culture of any age or clime. The women had very honourable position in society in Vedic period. According to Manusmriti In the other words where there women were honoured there would be happiness and joy. In ancient period women wielded considerable influence in society and played significant role in various walks of life. They helped their husbands with their wise insel in moment of crises. They did not hesitate even to take up arms or weapons to protect the life of their family or state. For instanse Kaikaie, the wife of King Dasharath helped her husband (Dasharath) in the battle field. In the early age of medieval India, during the time of Harsha, his sister Rajyashri, after the death of her husband occupied a seat of honour by the side of her brothers and also participated in state of deliberations.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages