[INDOLOGY] a statement about respectable women

[Edeltraud Harzer]

Dear Gaia and list members,

I am not offering any evidence from the literature, rather would like to mention what I could observe and also was told within traditional communities in India that even if the male is a close relative, but not an inhabitant, as soon he enters the house, women disappear. Or if necessary in the case of a surprise visit, etc., they cover their whole head and of course their face with their pallu or dupatta. It was indicated to me indirectly that this behavior is used as a prevention to incest.

Edeltraud Harzer
University of Texas at Austin


> On Aug 2, 2023, at 2:41 AM, Gaia Pintucci via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> 
> Dear list members, 
> 
> I encountered the following statement: 
> kulāṅganā hi caramaṃ śāyinyaḥ prathamaṃ prabodhinyaś ca bhavanti
> and it was marked with an iti. 
> (A variant wording has caramaśāyinyaḥ prathamāvabodhinyaś for caramaṃ śāyinyaḥ prathamaṃ prabodhinyaś.)
> Unfortunately my grepping yielded no result, therefore if someone among you happens to know the source for this sentence or has a hunch of the type of source which could include a similar statement, I would be very grateful to hear from you. (I am thinking that dharmaśāstra might be the right place to search for it, but it would be nice to first narrow down the range of texts to examine.)
> Beside that and regardless whether the above really is a verbatim quote or not, do any of you know more about the prescription/usage, in the ancient Indian context, that women, if they are respectable, wake up first and go to bed last?
> 
> All the best, 
> Gaia Pintucci
> 
> 
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