G-11 Comparative Analysis- Hinduism, Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism PDF

 HINDUISM VIEWS ON WOMEN MANUSMRITI OR LAWS OF MANU Based on this standard book in the Hindu canon, women must attend ritualistic practices despite the fact that they had no roles to play in these activities. According to this basi...

 HINDUISM VIEWS ON WOMEN MANUSMRITI OR LAWS OF MANU Based on this standard book in the Hindu canon, women must attend ritualistic practices despite the fact that they had no roles to play in these activities. According to this basic text, the three-stage pattern for a woman include that a woman child be protected by her father, a wife must be protected by her husband, and an old woman be protected by her sons. As a married woman, she must become a good wife and treat her husband as a god. She must serve and follow him, and pray for him. She often eats when her husband has finished eating. In return, a husband must also revere his wife as a goddess. The sacred text adds that the happiness of the wife is crucial in the stability of the family.  HINDUISM VIEWS ON WOMEN Cases of having several wives also exist in Indian society that naturally breed hatred and jealousies among the wives. More so, women are not allowed to remarry after the death of their husbands. Shaving their head is a requirement to make them unappealing to other interested men. The most difficult chores are given to widows and they are forbidden to eat alongside family members. Widows are personification of all the negative characteristics of a woman, ill-fated and wretched. Widows are brought to the Indian city of Vrindavan by their families who eventually abandon them there.  HINDUISM VIEWS ON WOMEN A widow can opt to commit sati or the act of killing herself by jumping into the funeral pyre of her husband. It is believed that immolating one's self assures immense rewards for the family and gives a chance to the wife to be with her husband in the next life. The practice of sati has now been banned in India especially with the passage of Sati (Prevention) Act of 1988 that criminalized any type of involvement in sati.