SOCIAL AND LEGAL PORTRAIT OF AN IDEAL HINDU WOMAN IN DHARMASHASTRA TEXTS
The article is concerned with the study of women’s status in Ancient India. The Dharmashastras has an extensive written legacy of traditional India. The main sources of research are Manavadharmashastra, Dharmashastra Yajnavalkya, Dharmashastra Narada, Vaishnava - Dharmashastra. These sources are revered and considered as authoritative ones even in modern India. The texts of dharmashastras comprehensively include not only religious and moral issues, but also those that refer to marriage, children upbringing, succession, relations in family and community. It is not feasible to define the real status of a woman in Ancient India. Nevertheless, in the course of study it can be seen that the texts have no contradictions on the question of a woman’s status in a family and community. Being prescriptions, these texts could have a great impact on changing the attitude to women in Ancient India, often to the worse direction. The Dharmashastras, being a peculiar legal document, consolidated the characteristic attitudes of female lawlessness, spreading infringements on women's rights, keeping up such customs and traditions as child marriage, the ban on re-marriage, deprivation of property and inheritance rights, fidelity to the husband after his death, etc.