[t'venkatam] Women and vedic mantra

[Guest guest]

--- jasn sn <jayasartn wrote:

> - Hence the question is not whether women could

> recite the vedas or not. It is – ‘Should they need

to learn vedas at all, as men do?’

 

**************

 

Dear member,

You pose a very pertinent query.

 

If you want to frame the question in the cut-&-dry way

you did, then I say the answer is: Yes, women should

indeed undertake Vedantic studies, but not in the

traditional Vedic way men do.

 

The example of AndAl you quote is the best one in fact

to illustrate how womenfolk imbibe Vedantic knowledge

from their Vedic surroundings without having to labour

like their menfolk.

 

AndAl was the daughter of Peria-azhwAr who was a Vedic

adherent. One must imagine briefly for a moment how

the Peria-AzhwAr household might have been in those

days. It must have had a distinctly Vedic life-style.

Although AndAl surely could not have been initiated

into Vedic studies by her orthodox father, how did she

become such a great Vedantic adept? We can only

conclude that AndAl's Vedic education came to be

imparted to her through a process of inspired osmosis

rather than laborious cultivation.

 

I've always been struck by the fact that in the

TiruppAvai AndAl does not make a single direct

reference to the Vedic "sruti". Nowhere will you find

a word like "marai" or "vEdiyar" in the TiruppAvai.

But ANdAl does refer to "munivar" and "yOgi" i.e.

realized souls. This to me seems very, very

significant. It suggests to me that she was very

careful not to make direct references to Vedantic

thought, Vedantic faith and Vedantic personality. When

it came to making direct references to Veda, the Vedic

regimen or to Vedic practices she was doubly careful

and avoided it completely.

 

In the TiruppAvai, which is full of Upanishad 'sAram'

(as Sri RamanujAchArya said), besides the passing

references to "yOgis", "munivars" and "tavattavars",

we see clearly that AndAl does not anywhere explicitly

pronounce Vedantic thoughts (in the forthright manner

of her holy colleagues, the other AzhwArs such as

NammAzhwAr or Tirumazhisai). All of AndAl's allusions

and references to Veda or Vedanta in the TiruppAvai,

we must not fail to notice, are always rather veiled,

indirect, allegorical, suggestive and under-stated.

Because of this fact probably it would be more

appropriate to characterize the TiruppAvai as being

far more Upanishad 'parimalam' (lingering flavour)

than Upanishad 'sAram' (concentrate).

 

For instance, in the line "dEvAdi-dEvanai senru nAm

sEvitthAl, ah-ah yenru aarAindhu arUL ElOr

embaavaay!", we see the veiled allusion to the

"anandavalli" and "brhghuvalli" passages of the

Taittiriya Upanishad. Again in the stanza beginning

"orutthi maganaay pirandhu..." we see her skillfully

use the events of Krishna's early avataric days as

veiled metaphors for traditional Vedic sacrificial

("yagnya") procedures.

 

AndAl's references to Veda or Vedanta are thus always

veiled, never forthright. We must ask ourselves why?

It was clearly because it was her way of deferring to

the time-honoured tradition of women from Vedic

families being duty-bound to observe reticence in all

matters Vedic.

 

So, the point I'm trying to make is that AndAl's

example that you quote is in itself the best example

to prove rather than disprove the time-honoured

tradition of women not being obliged at all to engage

directly in Vedic studies. They are only needed to

enable, encourage and support the family menfolk to

faithfully tread the Vedic pathway as ordained. In

doing that not only would the womenfolk serve best the

interests of the Vedic way of life but also, in the

process, like AndAl, gain the highest Vedantic wisdom

and Grace.

 

I commend you, dear member, for posing a very tricky

but first-class question.

 

Rgds,

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

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