प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

IX] FEMALE EDUCATION 215 the proper manner, its study should be prohibited to them in order to avert spiritual disasters to the family arising out of the mistakes of amateurish Vedic girls- students. Spoken dialect had by this time become completely differentiated from the Vedic speech ; women were unable to speak even ordinary Sanskrit and used to express themselves in Prakrits or vernaculars. They must have experienced greater difficulties in correctly pronouncing the Vedic hymns than men, who could speak classical Sanskrit correctly. Leaders of society therefore felt that correct transmission of the Vedic literature necessitated the prohibition of its study to women. Their Upanayana was therefore also discontinued. **The Lowering of the Marriage Age :—**The mischief caused by the discontinuance of Upanayana was further enhanced by the lowering of the marriage- able age. In the Vedic period girls were married at about the age of 16 or 17 ; but by c. 500 B. C. the custom arose of marrying them soon after the attainment of puberty. Dharmaśāstra works of the

1. It is undoubtedly true that Mādhava, who flourished in the 14th century, observes in his Nyāya-mālāvīstāra (p. 335, Bombay edition) that women are entitled to Upanayana. A similar statement is made by Mitramiśra of the 17th century when discussing Manu II, 66. The statements of these authors in these passages do not warrant the view that Upanayana of girls was performed in some families even in the 17th century A. D. The above authors are simply expounding the views of the earlier writers they are commenting upon, and not attesting to the contemporary practice. This would be quite clear from a wrong construction which Mitramiśra elsewhere places upon a passage in the Pāraskara Gṛihya Sūtra :—बाह्यतः स्त्री बलिमुपहरति II, 17. Mitramiśra com- bines the two words स्त्री and बलिम् into स्त्रीबलिम् on the ground that women were incapable of offering any oblations owing to their ignorance. Cf. एतादृशव्याख्याने स्त्रीणां तत्तद्बलिप्रदानानुकूलविद्याकल्पना स्यात् । V. M. S. p. 908.