Hola MaHigh-School - August 2017
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ncient times<br />
India<br />
Women during the early Vedic period (some 3,500 years back in<br />
time) enjoyed equal status with men in all aspects of life. Works<br />
by ancient Indian grammarians such as Patanjali and Katyayana<br />
suggest that women were educated in the early Vedic period.<br />
Rigvedic verses suggest that women married at a mature age<br />
and were probably free to select their own husbands in a practice<br />
called swayamvar or live-in relationship called Gandharva<br />
marriage. Scriptures such as the Rig Veda and Upanishads<br />
mention several women sages and seers, notably Gargi and<br />
Maitreyi.<br />
Alas, again. A lot has changed.<br />
And Europe and the Vikings and Japan and China and so on?<br />
From recorded time: Not so great!<br />
The few glimpses we have of women as significant in history<br />
are not many. Elisabeth I in the UK, Margaret I of Denmark and<br />
so on. Those were not mere appendages to men. But that was<br />
just not the norm.<br />
If interested, look it up and be amazed. Too much depended on<br />
the marriage and that was not by consensus as the norm either.
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