Samudrika Lakshana - 3

Tamils classified women in to seven categories according to their age: 

Pethai, 

Pethumbai, 

Mangai, 

Matanthai,

Arivai, 

Therivai and 

Perilam Pen, 

starting from age 5 and finishing with 40. 

Probably they called over forty women with a general term like “woman”. Sanskrit book Rati Rahasya went one step further and classified women into four categories on the basis of psycho-physical aspects:

Padmini, 

Chitrini, 

Shankini and 

Hastini. 

Many books were written until 12^th century giving more information about women’s body features. All these show serious research was done in these areas by Hindus.