Vedic Views on Women

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Women In Vedic Culture

 

In ancient India, women occupied a very important position, in fact a

superior position to, men. Literary evidence suggests that kings and

towns were destroyed because a single woman was wronged by the state.

For example, Valmiki's Ramayana teaches us that Ravana and his entire

clan was wiped out because he abducted Sita. Veda Vyasa's

Mahabharatha teaches us that all the Kauravas were killed because

they humiliated Draupadi in public. Elango Adigal's Sillapathigaram

teaches us Madurai, the capital of the Pandyas was burnt because

Pandyan Nedunchezhiyan mistakenly killed her husband on theft

charges.

 

In Vedic times women and men were equal as far as education and

religion was concerned. Women participated in the public sacrifices

alongside men. One text mentions a female rishi Visvara. some Vedic

hymns, are attributed to women such as Apala, the daughter of Atri,

Ghosa, the daughter of Kaksivant or Indrani, the wife of Indra.

Apparently in early Vedic times women also received the sacred thread

and could study the Vedas. The Haritasmrti mentions a class of women

called brahmavadinis who remained unmarried and spent their lives in

study and ritual. Panini's distinction between arcarya (a lady

teacher) and acaryani (a teacher's wife), and upadhyaya (a woman

preceptor) and upadhyayani ( a preceptor's wife) indicates that women

at that time could not only be students but also teachers of sacred

lore. He mentions the names of several noteworthy women scholars of

the past such as Kathi, Kalapi, and Bahvici. The Upanishads refer to

several women philosophers, who disputed with their male colleagues

such as Vacaknavi, who challenged Yajnavalkya. The Rig Veda also

refers to women engaged in warfare. One queen Bispala is mentioned,

and even as late a witness as Megasthenes (fifth century B.C. E.)

mentions heavily armed women guards protecting Chandragupta's

palace.

 

 

 

 

Recent incidents of sati and rash of "dowry murders" have made

headlines not only in India, but all around the world, and have

focused attention to women's issues in India. In the wake of the

discussion it emerged that Indian women's problems are not only

problems of Hindu women or problems caused by traditional Hinduism.

Hindu religion has been occasionally criticized as encouraging

inequality between men and women, towards the detriment of Hindu

women. This inaccurate presumption again arises when people combine

social and religious issues.

In religious matters, Hindus have elevated women to the level of

divinity. One of the things most misconstrued about India and

Hinduism is that it's a male-dominated society and religion. It is

not. It is a culture whose only words for strength and power are

feminine -- ``shakti'' means ``power'' and ``strength.'' All male

power comes from the feminine. And Shakti is the fundamental strength

of the feminine that infuses all life and is viewed as a goddess.

Shakti is the divine feminine power found in everything.

 

The Vedic pantheon includes a substantial number of female goddesses.

There are beautiful hymns to Usha, the dawn, imagined as an alluring

young woman:

 

" Dawn on us with prosperity, O Usha, daughter of the sky,

Dawn with great glory, goodness, lady of the light, dawn thou with

riches, bounteous one....

O Usha, graciously answer our songs of praise with bounty and

with brilliant light.......grant us a dwelling wide and free from

foes..........."

 

One of the most important of all Vedic hymns, the so-called

Devisukta, is addressed to Vak (speech, revelation), the goddess who

is described as the companion of all the other gods, as the

instrument that makes ritual efficacious: "I am the queen, the

gatherer-up of treasures..." It is not unimportant, that Earth

(prithvi) is considered female, the goddess who bears the mountains

and who brings forth vegetation.

 

It is significant to note that only Hindus worship God in the form of

Divine Mother. In Hinduism the deities for knowledge, learning and

material wealth are female and not male. The past social

inconsistencies and injustices that did not arise from Hindu

scriptures, but from humans who failed to correctly incorporate the

teachings of the scriptures, such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad

Gita, into their social philosophy.

 

This concept of the spiritual equality of souls naturally influenced

the status of women on an individual and social level.

 

"Where women are honored there the gods are pleased; but where they

are not honored no sacred rite yields rewards," declares Manu Smriti

(III.56) a religious text on social conduct.

 

Women must be honored and adorned by their father, brothers,

husbands, and brother-in-law who desire great good fortune. Where

women, verily are honored, there the gods rejoice; where, however,

they are not honored, there all sacred rites prove fruitless. Where

the female relations live in grief -- that family soon perishes

completely; where, however, they do not suffer from any grievance --

that family always prospers. ..

 

Her father protects her in childhood, her husband protects her in

youth, her sons protect her in old age. The father who does not give

away his daughter in marriage at the proper time is censurable;

censurable is the husband who does not approach his wife in due

season; and after the husband is dead, the son, verily is censurable,

who does not protect his mother. Even against the slightest

provocations should women be particularly guarded; for unguarded they

would bring grief to both the families.

 

Regarding this as the highest dharma of all four castes, husbands,

though weak, must strive to protect their wives. His own offspring,

character, family, self, and dharma does one protect when he protects

his wife scrupulously. . . The husband should engage his wife in the

collection and expenditure of his wealth, in cleanliness, in dharma,

in cooking food for the family, and in looking after the necessities

of the household. . . .

 

Women destined to bear children, enjoying great good fortune,

deserving of worship, the resplendent lights of homes on the one hand

and divinities of good luck who reside in the houses on the other --

between these there is no difference whatsoever.

 

Hinduism offers some intriguing and unique examples of strong women

in the form of Goddesses. Two thousand years ago Saint Tiruvalluvar

observed: "What does a man lack if his wife is worthy? And what

does he possess if she is lacking worth?" There is more respect in

the East for women and for their role in society.

 

To instill such high ideals in humankind, Indian ancestors created a

plethora of goddesses who enjoyed equal status with their husbands.

The concept of Ardhanareeshwarar, where God is depicted as half-man

and half-woman, is a concrete example to support this argument. In

many philosophical texts God is referred to a Tat, meaning It and

that God is beyond gender. And, one would find a comparable Goddess

for each God. Further, we know for a fact that ancient India was

permissive; women could have multiple husbands, widows could remarry,

divorce was permitted for incompatibility or when estranged.

 

Women, who once enjoyed an honored position and are found in the

Upanishads conversing freely with men upon the highest philosophical

topics, had become virtual slaves in the joint family. With the

expansion of Vedic religion in Northern India and possibly also under

the impacts of threats from the outside, a definition of the place of

women in the Aryan society took place, which amounted to increasing

restriction of their independence and a clear preponderance of

patriarchal rule. What has been described so far as "Vedic law for

women" was largely the tradition followed in North India, the

Aryavarta, the Hindu heartland, South India, and to some extent also

Bengal and Assam, preserved elements of pre-Vedic matriarchy. In

certain South Indian castes the line of inheritance is from mother to

(eldest) daughter, and marriage is a "visiting" relationship.

Naturally, women were more independence and free in every respect.