Of Maltova Mothers and Other Stories MSS Pandian Anandhi S A R Venkatachalapathy Another element in his [Periyar's] rationalist message was his campaign against the oppression of women. He championed the causes of widow- remarriage, of marriages based on consent, and of women's right to divorce, to property and abortion. Pointing out that there was no Tamil word for the male counterpart of an adulteress he fumed: "the word adulteress implies man's con- cept of women as a slave, a commodity to be sold and to be hired". Periyar's demand at a conference two years ago, that no odium should be attached to a woman who desired a man other than her husband (which the Press so avidly vulgarised) as well as Periyar's advocacy of the abolition of marriage as the only way of Treeing women from enslavement, were about as radical as the views of any women's liberationist.-Passing of the January 12, 1974.