During menstruation, there will be physical restlessness and difficulties. At a mental level, there will be other worries and sorrows. To have a complete rest from all of these, they have prescribed menstruating women to be separate. It is true these days one is not burdened with domestic chores similar to the days gone by. There were no gadgets and devices for the various domestic chores in those days, which added to the burden. There was a need to rest from the burdensome activities. Even today, many travel and go to work and no one is asking to put a stop to these.
When one returns home, in addition to the need for rest, impurities related to the mind, and physical body needs to be considered. Some might be mentally impacted causing contradictory thoughts to arise. Our home is the place where Perumal is residing at, where Perumal Tiruvaradhanam is conducted, it is a place where prasadam for Emperuman is prepared, a place where we partake prasadam – we associate all aspects of household living with Perumal. This is the reason why we wash the entrance of the house and draw kolam. Hence, to disengage menstruating women from aspects related to Perumal to maintain purity and for them to remain pure and restful, they were asked to live separately.