In medieval Tamilnad the status of women was clearly one of subordination to men. This subordination was not felt as such. This was surely a common phenomenon in the medieval world.

Woman in Tamilnad did not hold public office and did not go out to battle. She had no claim to the throne. In a sense legally she was a perpetual minor. When her husband died she remained a widow or committed sati. Sati was practised usually by the womenfolk of royal and aristocratic families.

It is known that while the wife of Gandaraditya survived him for a long time, the wife of Sundara Chola committed sati. Marriage was a sacrament and not a contract; i.e., the condition of wedlock could not be ended by divorce.

From early Chola times the courtesan, a powerful competitor to the wife started playing a new role. A number of girls dedicated to service in the temples and called Devadasis (literally ‘servants of the lord’) were expected to sing and dance in the courtyard of the temple.

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Unfortunately this institution became degraded; ‘at her worst she was a temple drudge who when she consented to serve a passing stranger, still believed that she was performing an act of worship’.