Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/110

 The following advice to would-be husbands is from the "Upanishads."

Are these ordinances obeyed to the letter? We may decide that some laxity is as permissible to the Hindu women who reads Vishnu's "Institutes," as to her British sister who is acquainted with the Pauline Epistles. It is fairly evident, from all that we hear of the present position of the women of India, that neither Manu or Vishnu are invariably accepted quite literally.

In most of the extracts that I have given, from the "Laws of Manu" and "The Institutes of Vishnu," the bias seems undoubtedly to the advantage of men. But elsewhere in these pages I have quoted passages from Hindu literature which reveal rather less of the patriarchal spirit. And I am sure that Dr. Coomaraswamy would tell me that no clause in these codes militates directly against the highest interests of women.

Woman everywhere, even in polyandrous tribes, is