shared by Confucianism. However, although the duties of a wife towards thehusband were laid down in the Confucian code of discipline, it did not stress the duties andobligations of the husband towards the wife. The teachings of the Buddha was not as biasedtowards the husbands. In the Singalovada Sutta, the Buddha had explicitly stated both the dutiesof the husband towards the wife and vice versa. On the part of the husband, he should be faithful,courteous and not despising. It is the husband's duty to hand over authority to his wife; and fromtime to time, provide her with adornments. Thus, we witness the unbiased attitude shown by theBuddha towards both men and women. The Buddha had also indicated various handicaps and drawbacks a woman had to undergo. Forinstance, the trials and tribulations a woman had to bear in the agony of leaving her family on theday of her marriage and the trauma of accommodating herself in a new environment fraught withproblems and difficulties. Added to these the physiological pain and suffering which a womansubjected to during her menstrual periods, pregnant and child-birth. AU these are but naturalphenomena which depicts only the differential handicaps and circumstances prevailing between aman and a woman. The Buddha's teachings on the real nature of li and death - of karma and samsaric wanderings -change social attitudes towards women during that period. This Is especially so with regard to thegreater important attached to the birth of a son. Buddhism never shared the brahmin's view that ason was essential for the father' passage to heaven. The Buddha taught that according t. the Lawof Karma, one is responsible for one's own action and its consequence. The well-being of a fathero' grandfather does not depend upon the action of the son or &e grandson. Each individual isresponsible for its own actions. Therefore, there was no cause for the married women to beanxious just because they could not produce sons Jus...
