WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
bation. So powerful is the longing for male children that Hindu women employ many spells in the hope of conceiving sons. The son-giving gods are invoked with an anxious fervour. Is it not possible that this anxiety in the mind of a pregnant woman may have an injurious influence on her offspring? I know that this is a subject of controversy. But it seems to me that such solicitude cannot fail to affect the health of the mother, and that her state may react upon the unborn child.
The unwanted daughter in India is an object for pity. She is even in some families upbraided by her parents for being a girl. A wife, asked if she has children, will reply, "I have nothing"; and "nothing" means a girl. The Pundita, whom I am quoting, describes the lives of many girls as terribly unhappy through the stigma of their sex. She says that brothers frequently despise their sisters.
The Hindu Scriptures, like the Christian Bible, contain statements that often appear highly contradictory. We have read passages from the sacred books of India extolling women and the mother. But the "Laws of Manu" contain this sentence: "Of dishonour woman is the cause; of enmity woman is the cause; of mundane existence woman is the cause; hence woman is to be avoided."
Again, in a Hindu proverb, we read:—
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