Who made us to learn these roman numbers even today as I write.
In 1980, I have seen milky galaxy with naked eyes. Unbelievable? Maybe. But like you, I've sacrificed much to the march of progress. Progress gives, but it also takes away.
Shiva Parvati riding the bull Nandi, Penjikent Temple II, 690-722 CE, National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan.
in 1952, Nehru's dream of establishing a secular India was ultimately brought to fruition by Indira Gandhi, famously nicknamed "the iron lady," during the emergency via a presidential decree. those were our "leaders." 🫠
Lakshmi: Then and now, a journey spanning 2200 years. #happydiwali #DiwaliCelebration
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Behind every automated surname change lies a buried history of legal dispossession.
Europe didn’t just erase women’s names—it erased identities.
Reclaiming one’s surname isn’t vanity.
It’s reclamation of legal personhood.
9️⃣
The Council of Europe outlawed gender bias in naming (Resolution 78/37).
But centuries of coverture have left a cultural residue—reflected in every “Mrs. X” and every form asking for a “maiden name.”
8️⃣
Not all Europe complied.
Spain and Portugal retained dual surnames from both parents—a medieval Iberian custom that preserved maternal lineage in law.
Greece went further: since 1983, women must keep their birth surname.
7️⃣
Turkey still bears the shadow:
Article 187 forces a married woman to take her husband’s surname—unless she applies to add her own.
The European Court of Human Rights called it a violation of equality and privacy.
6️⃣
France’s twist: women could only use their maiden name legally—but socially were recorded as “Madame + husband’s surname.”
The Napoleonic Code turned symbolic subordination into bureaucratic routine.
5️⃣
Austria’s civil code worked the same way:
By default, the husband’s name consumed hers.
Only in 2013 did women gain automatic right to keep their birth names without special declaration.
4️⃣
In Germany, before 1977, a married woman had to take her husband’s name.
Until then, the law saw her as an extension of his authority.
Only in the Federal Republic’s reforms did "surname equality" even enter legal vocabulary.
3️⃣
England was the epicenter.
By the 17th century, its laws formally absorbed a woman into her husband’s identity.
France, Austria, Germany, and others followed similar paths through civil codes that made the male head of household the legal nucleus.
2️⃣
Under coverture (11th–19th c.), the wife’s legal personhood merged into the husband’s.
She could not own property, sign contracts, or even bear her own name in law.
She was “Mrs. John Smith,” both figuratively—and legally.
𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐰 𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲—𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞.
1️⃣
When a European woman married, her surname often vanished.
Not by choice—but by law.
This wasn’t romance; it was coverture, a legal doctrine declaring that a wife had no separate identity.
Yet another style icon from Chandraketugarh circa 200 BCE
#Archaeology #Gemsofindology
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