An Analysis of the Roles of Women in Classical Hindu Texts
Chris Cherry
HUMA 304
10/02/02
Religious texts, regardless of the faiths from which they spring, give the faithful
advice on how to live, show a glimpse at history, and set the social norms and rules by
which the religion’s adherents are supposed to live. One piece of literature, “The Laws of
Manu”, sets strict guidelines on the place in society for both men and women. An epic
called “The Ramayana” details the life of Rama and his wife Sita, ultimate examples of
right behavior according to the social norms. Both “The Laws of Manu” and Valmiki’s
“Ramayana” portray the roles of women in the Classical Period of Hinduism (ca. 500
B.C.E.-500) from different perspectives, but in the end set fort the same rules and ideals,
including the dominance of men over subservient women.
In the Ramayana, Sita, the wife of Rama, is portrayed as an ideal Hindu woman,
beautiful, chaste, and fully aware of her duties. During the wedding, her beauty is
extolled in phrases like “the sweet-eyed Sita”, with the “bridal blush upon her brow”
(Valmiki, 64). Her father Janak gives his “beauteous daughter” to Rama in marriage,
pronouncing in the wedding vows that she is “the best of women” (Valmiki, 64).
Sita’s beauty in the Ramayana is surpassed and eclipsed by her complete
submission to her duty as wife. In her wedding vows, Sita is given to Rama by her
father, with the father telling Rama that she is to be “henceforth sharer of thy virtue,”
“faithful wife,” and “of thy weal and woe partaker” (Valmiki, 64). She is thus bound to
her husband, and released from her father’s care into Rama’s. Her sense of duty is again
shown upon Rama’s banishment into the wilderness. Although Sita is not required to go
into exile with Rama, she wishes to do so. She feels that “the faithful woman follows
where her wedded lord may lead,” and that “with her lord she falls or rises” (Valmiki,
64). She decides to follow him into hardship, wandering the jungle, where she will be
“happier than in father’s mansions” living “with a faithful woman’s pride” (Valmiki, 64).
These passages all show how Sita is the ultimate example of a dutiful woman, bound to
her husband, in the Hindu tradition.
Sita’s chastity comes into question in the third, fourth, and fifth books of the
Ramayana. After she is kidnapped by Ramana, a demon, she is held captive until Rama
and his friends rescue her. Because she was absent from him, he questions her virtue and
devotion to him. To resolve this issue, Sita takes part in a ritual test involving fire to
prove her purity and faithfulness. Even so, the people spread rumors about her lack of
chastity, and Rama banishes her again to the wilderness to appease the populace. She
takes all of this in stride and raises her two sons, unknown to Rama, in the wilderness
(Kessler, 63). Through that test of fire Sita exemplifies chastity and virtue, and again
accepts her husband’s command as law through her sense of duty.
Sita is seen by some in the Hindu tradition as an idea woman, but the Laws of
Manu give a seemingly opposed picture of women in Hindu society. They are viewed as
property to be managed and guarded, and as corrupted and bad by design. Hindu women
are seen as such corrupt beasts that the Laws of Manu call the guarding of women the
supreme duty above all others (Doniger, 61).
In the Laws of Manu, women are represented primarily as the property of men,
pieces of property that cannot own property of their own. The idea of woman as property
is clearly spelled out in a listing of potential spoils of war: “…grain, livestock, women,
all sorts of things and non-precious metals belong to the man who wins them” (Doniger,
61). Even in the Ramayana, Sita, the bride of Rama, is given to Rama by her father –
from one owner to the next (Valmiki, 64). The Laws of Manu also state that women
themselves can own only very limited property, as “the wife, the son, and the slave are
three (categories of persons) considered to be without property” (Patton, 72). Only
wedding gifts, gifts from her husband, and inheritance from brother, father, or mother can
possibly be a woman’s property according to the Laws of Manu (Patton, 73).
While Sita was viewed as chaste and virtuous and aware of her duty, the Laws of
Manu paint a different picture of the rank-and-file woman and her many flaws. Women
are seen as things that need to be guarded by men, who should take this task as their
supreme duty above all else. As women have a tendency to be unfaithful, according to the
text, it is important for men to control and guard them. Since the man “enters the wife,
becomes an embryo, and is born again in her,” he must keep her malicious and adulterous
nature in check (Patton, 61). Only by guarding a woman, and keeping her free from
pollution, can the man guard his children, his descendants, and his own public honor.
The Laws of Manu further describe the flaws of women and the ease with which
they can be corrupted. According to the text, women are inherently whores who chase
after men, regardless of the man’s age or beauty. Their minds are fickle, and they are
possessed of a natural lack of affection towards their husbands (Patton, 61). Worldly
things like associating with a bad crowd, or being apart from their husbands may also
easily corrupt them. Drinking, wandering about, and even sleeping are considered by the
authors of the Laws of Manu to be corrupting influences on women (Patton, 61).
Men are not only commissioned to guard their wives, but are also required to keep
their wives out of trouble by keeping them busy. A woman who is spending and
collecting her husband’s money is one who is too busy to get in trouble. By cooking food
and looking after the furniture, a woman does her duty to her husband in the domestic
realm. Religious rituals of purification also occupy a woman’s time and keep her from
bringing shame and sorrow on her family and husband.
On the surface, the place of women in Hindu society of the time is reflected in
different ways in the Laws of Manu and the Ramayana, but the works are really saying
the same things about the role and place of women. While Sita is portrayed in the
Ramayana as a perfect wife, mother, and woman, she is still a possession of the men in
her life, and bound to their whims. Where women are esteemed on the same level as
livestock and grain in the Laws of Manu, Sita is held in similar regard when her father
gives her away to her new husband as a possession. Sita is subjected to a test by fire
when she claims her innocence to charges of adultery, and even when she passes the test,
the people still doubt her, and have Rama banish her. In the Laws of Manu, all women
are viewed in this way, as untrustworthy whores who must be watched at all times. It is
automatically assumed that women are corrupt in this way. In the Ramayana, Sita is seen
as something unusual and different from the ordinary woman precisely because she
behaves in a manner that is away from the standard of the Laws of Manu. From her
pedestal of perfection, Sita illustrates the ideal subservient, beautiful, and dutiful woman.
She is the mythical, unattainable standard to which the fickle, unfaithful women of the
Laws of Manu are held.
Works of literature give readers a window into the situation and times in which
they were written. The texts of “The Laws of Manu” and “Ramayana” show the
prevailing opinions of the time on the place of women in society, one through description
of the character of women, the other through the story of a woman who behaves
admirably. Although these two works are written from different perspectives, they both
present the same rules and ideals for women’s behavior, their submission to men, and
their sense of duty.
Works Cited
Doniger, Wendy and Smith, Brian K., trans. “Laws of Manu.” Eastern Ways of Being
Religious. Ed. Gary E. Kessler. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company,
2000.
Kessler, Gary E., ed. Eastern Ways of Being Religious. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield
Publishing Company, 2000.
Patton, Laurie L. ed. Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India.
Oxford University Press, 2002.
Valmiki. “Ramayana.” Eastern Ways of Being Religious. Ed. Gary E. Kessler. Mountain
View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000.