.widows in sangam period

Dear author,
Your chapter on ''engiruntho vanthan'' is very interesting. The amazing quotes of various aspects of the conditions of widows in that place are heart rending; the feeling of pity for the widows forced into asylums for their daily bread is pitiable indeed.


It seems prior to the Sangam period, widows re-marrying her husband's brother was the norm...in the case where no brother of the husband was available, she was permitted to marry outside of the husband's family.

The advent of Buddhism in the 6th century changed this.Widows were not allowed to re-marry. The asylum (pally) practice seems to have come into vogue during this period. We see in the Silapathikaram that one Madhavi, a devout Buddhist turned monkish, after the assassination of her love husband kovalan by the pandian king Nedunchezihan.
In the Purananooru that one widow, Perungkopendu, had attempted immolation at the funeral pyre of her husband..and she speaks about the capricious state widows. From this we learn about the pathetic conditions under which widows lived..where widows were denied ghee in their foods, and instead their foods were cooked with a white gingelly paste; they had to sleep on the bare floor without any mat, etc.


Thus we are familiar with the conditions under which widows widows lived in the Sangam period..

by shivayadav.