Page:The Position of Women in Indian Life.djvu/54

4 plant, it was chiefly woman who at harvest-time gathered in the crops. Subsequently the nomadic life of the tent was abandoned for that of a fixed home, and her position improved, but she still remained the property of her husband, who had absolute right over her in every way. Such was woman's condition in primitive times.

But a gleam of brightness breaks upon the pages of her early history. Strangely enough, amid the bygone civilizations of the world, an era of glory dawned for woman, and we find in most nations a heroic age, when woman was worshipped and set in the highest place of honour. In the ancient literature of India, dating from centuries before European culture began, in the great epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, woman took distinguished part in her husband's work, aiding him with her love and counsel, accompanying him, like Sita and Draupadi, even into exile. She shared in the public ceremonies, and was accorded the highest rank and dignity.

This heroic age of woman differed considerably in date among the various nations. Earliest among the Egyptians, Hindus, and Hebrews, it did not reach Europe till about the Christian Era. Judæa had its golden age for women in the days of Miriam; also about the twelfth century B.C., when Deborah, the prophetess, arose, "a mother in Israel," who "dwelt under the palm-tree between Rama and Bethel in Mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel