WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
chastity, let him not transgress with another man's wife."
Ananda, a disciple, asks Gautama how he is to conduct himself in regard to women.
"Do not see them," is the reply.
"But if we should see them, what are we to do?"
"Abstain from speech."
"But if they should speak to us, lord, what are we to do?"
"Keep wide awake."
The Indian followers of the teaching of Zoroaster, or Zara-thustra, form a highly intellectual cult. This is the most rational of all the religions of our Indian Empire; for it is almost free from myths concerning miracles, and its ethics are singularly comprehensive and liberal.
Among the Parsees, the modern exponents of the Zoroastrian philosophy, murder, infanticide, adultery—committed by men as well as women—lying, slander, theft and perjury are condemned positively. Kindness to animals is expressly inculcated. In this faith we shall look for an ideal of equality between the sexes. And not in vain; the Parsee moral writings teach plainly that the woman is the equal of the man. The higher education of women is encouraged, and there are women doctors in the community.[1] Among
- ↑ See "A Modern Zoroastrian," Samuel Laing.
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