Page 77 - Hinduism

Note to Chapter VII WOMANHOOD
The home is the unit of Hindu society and the nursery of its ethical and spiritual life, and the Hindu woman is the pivot of the home, its source and sustenance. If man is the gṛhastha or the householder, woman is the gṛhiṇī or the owner or maker of the home. There can be no home without a wife or mother. She is the ministering angel of man and the very cradle of family life. Hinduism thus honours the woman as wife and mother as no other religion does.
Marriage is a sacrament and not a civil contract. It is not lust and the gratification of animal instinct but love that links the male and the female as pati-patnī. Wedlock brings out the spontaneity and reciprocity of love, its constancy and irrevocability and the value of spiritual partnership. The domestic life of the woman is not a drudgery but an inner delight arising from her ministering to the husband's needs and the upbringing of the children. As sahadharmacāriṇī, the wife, with her feminine sweetness and grace, co- operates with her husband in the maintenance of the family as the foundation of the corporate life of the community. She willingly shares the duties of the husband in the performance of his fivefold duties involving gratitude to the forefathers and hospitality
77