The Vedic Aryans were inhabitants of cold, dry countries. Usually they did not use much water. In ancient times they ate the roasted meat of various birds and animals. Their diet on the whole was quite dry. None of their food had much gravy. It did not have as much liquid as does rice mixed with pulses, soup, chutney, etc. It may be that sometimes people choked to death. For this reason a custom to sip water from the palm of the hand in a particular style (known as gańd́úśa) was developed. Subsequently people accepted it as a part of religious rites.

However much people might indulge in tall talk, in no country or age were women granted full freedom in religious and social matters, nor are they given their rights even to this day. The Vedic Aryans were no exception to this rule. As gańd́uśa was considered a religious practice, it was not considered essential for women to perform it, but neither was it forbidden to them.