CHAPTER 17
The Woman and the Counter- Revolution
There is one copy with a title ‘The Woman and the Counter- Revolution’. There is another copy of the same text with a title, ‘The Riddle of the Woman’. The Editorial Board felt that this essay would be appropriate in this Volume rather than in the volume of ‘Riddles in Hinduism’ . —Editors.
Manu can hardly be said to be more tender to women than he was to the Shudra. He starts with a low opinion of women. Manu proclaims:
II. 213. It is the nature of women to seduce men in this (world); for that reason the wise are never unguarded in (the company of) females.
II. 214. For women are able to lead astray in (this) world not only a fool, but even a learned man, and (to make) him a slave of desire and anger.
II. 215. One should not sit in a lonely place with one’s mother, sister or daughter; for the senses are powerful, and master even a learned man.
IX. 14. Women do not care for beauty, nor is their attention fixed on age; (thinking); ‘(It is enough that) he is a man’, they give themselves to the handsome and to the ugly.
IX. 15. Through their passion for men, through their mutable temper, through their natural heartlessness, they become disloyal towards their husbands, however, carefully they may be guarded in this (world).
IX. 16. Knowing their disposition, which the Lord of creatures laid in them at the creation, to be such, (every) man should most strenuously exert himself to guard them.
IX. 17. (When creating them) Manu allotted to women (a love of their) bed, (of their) seat and (of) ornament, impure desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice, and bad conduct.
The laws of Manu against women are of a piece with this view. Women are not to be free under any circumstances. In the opinion of Manu: