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Terracotta figure of female sitting with crown on her head fully adorned with ornaments all over her body clearly reveals that women not only led a luxurious and respected life but also were worshipped like queens and Goddess. The terracotta seal of female with plant germinating out her womb shows that she was worshipped like Mother Goddess one who gives birth to plants, animals and other forms of life.

Everyone knows that original Indian civilization, THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILISATION which is also considered to be the one among the oldest civilizations of the world, worshipped women like Mother Goddess. Women were involved in all the important decisions, the management of the family passed from mother to daughter.

Now let’s move to our Vedic civilisation, turning towards Epic era (The Ramayana and The Mahabharata) the traces of of women marrying the husband of their own choice (swamvar) are clerly evident. Battles were fought to restore the diginity of women. Women also held important posts in army (Ramayan : Ravan’s gate was guarded by Lankani, Ashok Vatika was guarded by Trijita). Moving towards another religious book Manu Smatiti which says,

यत्र नार्यस्य पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवता:
यत्रैयस्तु न पूजयन्ते सर्वस्तत्रप्रफलाः क्रियाः।

Which means the place where women are honoured, divinity blossoms and the place where the women are dishonoured, all action no matter how noble it may be, remains unfruitful.

The names of some famous scholars like Leelawati, the great mathmatician , Russa, the great physican, Avanti Sundari, the famous poet, Gargi, the philospher and many more with an unending list.

Now the question arises from where the social evils like sati, jowhar, child marriage, purdah etc. came?

The answer is crystal clear to everyone. With the advent of invaders like Mohammad Gazhni, Mohammad Gohri, Alaudin Khilji, the great Mughal like Babar, Aurangzeb etc. the conditions of females deteriorated. We see that these plunderers, so called rulers, themselves never respected the women but also disheveled their condition in Indian society.

Padmavati was forced to perform Jowhar, because she very well knew that would not only be robbed by her jewels but also by her dignity. We see that battles were fought even before this period but no traces of Johwar were reported even a few cases of sati that were exception done only at the will of female were found. Nobody forced women to do so. But after this era females were forced to perform sati if they wanted to save their diginity. Parents were forced to restrict the education of girls because they knew if the eye of any demon fell on them then what they are going to do. Parents were forced to marry their girls early so that they may reach their husband save and sound. Girls were kept in purdah just to protect them from demons. Later on these practices became an integral part of society.

We see that today a new India needs a progressive society. Free from social evils. For this two things are most compulsory, firstly a society with compulsory, strict and timly justice. Second, the most important one let’s move back to our glorious past.

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