Harappa. Harappa is the first discovered site of this civilization excavated in 1921 by a team led by Daya Ram Sahni. ...

Mohen-jo Daro.Mohenjo-Daro(mound of dead)

Kalibangan. ...

Dholovira. ...

Lothal. ...

The Rig-Vedic society was a free society. The Aryans evidently preferred male child to female child. However, females were as free as their male counterparts. Education was equally open for boys and girls. Girls studied the Veda and fine arts. Women never observed purdha in the Vedic period. They enjoyed freedom in selecting their mates. But divorce was not permissible to them. In the family, they enjoyed complete freedom and were treated as Ardhanginis.

In domestic life women were considered to be supreme and enjoyed freedom. Home was the place of production. Spinning and weaving of clothes was done at home. Women helped their husbands in agricultural pursuits also. Husband used to consult his wife on financial matters.

Unmarried daughters had share in their fathers’ property. Daughter had full legal rights in the property of her father in the absence of any son. Mother’s property, after her death, was equally divided among sons and unmarried daughters. However, married women had no share in father’s property. As a wife, a woman had no direct share in her husband’s property. A widowed mother had some rights.

The woman was regarded as having an equally important share in the social and religious life because a man without woman was considered as an inadequate person. She regularly participated in religious ceremonies with her husband. There were many scholars who composed hymns of Rig Veda. Lopamudra, Gargi and Maitreye were the pioneers among them. Lopamudra, the wife of Agasti rishi, composed two verses of Rig Veda.

It may be concluded that during vedic period the status of women was not unequal to that of men. Women got the same education as men and participated in the philosophical debates.