Woman's enterprise., 1922-03-10
Women of India in Olden
Days Were Highly Educated
LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE SOUTHERN WO
MEMS COLLEGE ASSOCIATION BY G.N
ANNAIYA, BANGOLOIE, INDIA


This we come to know from the grea
works OF literary art, such as poetry
drama and prose which they have lef
US in various languages of India. Be
sides, We have books written by wo
men in other branches of learning
than the above mentioned. Some O
the most brilliant mathematical book
found in India at the present day hav,
owed their birth to women author
1t is needless to say that development
of music for many a generation in In
dia has been, and even now, is chiefly
in the hands of women. Some of oul
Rajpurt women fought glorious bat
ties at the hands Of writer's. This is
of times gone by. Now, apparently
our women are not so forward as they
used to be. The reason to my mind
appears to be the foreign invasions
and the consequent i'll treatment that
our gentler sex receives. They ther
took to home life entirely. The pres
ent day common women is mostly in.
terested in her household affairs in
preference to anything else. That
does not mean that we have no women
at all in other walks of life. We have
even this day one of the Worlds
famous lady poets in our Mrs. Saro-
JIM Mayou. We have a good many
accomplished musicians and we have
a few politicians and orators and
quite few successful school mis-
tresses. We have lady "Shandow,"
as we call her who is perfect ath-
lete and goes about giving circus per-
formances all over the country and is
called LADY Shandow' Marabai. But
do not think we have any more
lady generals now as we used to have
in the old RAPPORT days. But all these
specimens that l have quoted are
more or less exceptions when we con-
slider the number of women that we
are speaking Of is nearly IT'S millions.
The majority of women, as l said al
ready, are more or less lovers of
nome
Now, with regard to their educa-
ton, just small per cent. of them
are educated literally, l mean are
brought up to read and write, but
quite good majority Of girls are
perfectly cultured. By that I mean
they are given a kind of home train
ing by the mother and other female
members of the house that at a GER
tain age, say about nine years of
age you can depend upon her behav-
ing herself in society in the utmost
modest and in the manner of quite a
grown up girl. Almost every girl of
any pretense to society life knows
something of music, much of house
Keeping and a considerable amount of
She is told such stories Of
married life, of course all stories tax
IN from our secondary religious books.
She knows what it is to be true to
1er husband, how she should treat
lim and form a counter part of him
% make up between them a harmon
Gus whole house. She is taught that
'he has to soothe the worried life of
Ter husband who has to deal with all
linds Of hard problems outside the
louse, that when he comes home, he
hould be received most kindly and
III his wants attended to and never
ell Of the worries of the poor house.
lold problems to him until he is per-
ectly rested and is in fit condition
o see to helping her out Of her
roubles for which he is meant. It
an important part of a Hindu girls
ome education that she is meant to !
eutralize all that is hard and all that
s rough in man, which naturally he
'cquires by the kind of outside en-
'ironment he has.
In almost all cultured families the
iris are taught home management
nd taking care of children as careful
= as possible. When the girl has
ndergone all this, she does not get
he reins of household into her hands
Don after she marries, as is the case
, the Western World; (perhaps) she
as. yet another probationary period.
4 many Of the cases she is only an
ssistant to her mother-in-law. The
hief lady of any hausehold is the
lother of the house, the wife of the
ldest member of the house. This
ecessitates my explaining the fam
Y structure of the Hindu houses.s
A Hindu household may consist Of i