Great Vedic Women

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Women of the Vedic period (circa 1500-1200 BCE) were epitomes of intellectual

and spiritual attainment. The Vedas have lots to say about these women, who

both complemented and supplemented their male partners. When it comes to

talking about significant female figures of the Vedic period, four names -

Ghosha, Lopamudra, Sulabha Maitreyi, and Gargi - come to mind. GhoshaVedic

wisdom is encapsulated in myriad hymns, and 27 women-seers emerge from them.

But most of them are mere abstractions, except for a few, such as Ghosha, who

has a definite human form. Granddaughter of Dirghatamas and daughter of

Kakshivat, both composers of hymns in praise of Ashwins, Ghosha has two entire

hymns of the tenth book, each containing 14 verses, assigned to her name. The

first eulogizes the Ashwins, the heavenly twins who are also physicians; the

second is a personal wish expressing her intimate feelings and desires for

married life. Ghosha suffered from an incurable disfiguring disease, probably

leprosy, and remained a spinster at her father's house. Her implorations with

the Ashwins and the devotion of her forefathers towards them made them cure her

disease and allow her to experience wedded bliss.

LopamudraThe Rig Veda ('Royal Knowledge') has long conversations between the

sage Agasthya and his wife Lopamudra that testify to the great intelligence and

goodness of the latter. As the legend goes, Lopamudra was created by sage

Agasthya and was given as a daughter to the King of Vidarbha. The royal couple

gave her the best possible education and brought her up amidst luxury. When she

attained a marriageable age, Agasthya, the sage who was under vows of celibacy

and poverty, wanted to own her. Lopa agreed to marry him, and left her palace

for Agasthya's hermitage. After serving her husband faithfully for a long

period, Lopa grew tired of his austere practices. She wrote a hymn of two

stanzas making an impassioned plea for his attention and love. Soon afterwards,

the sage realized his duties towards his wife and performed both his domestic

and ascetic life with equal zeal, reaching a wholeness of spiritual and

physical powers. A son was born to them. He was named Dridhasyu, and he later

became a great poet.

MaitreyiThe Rig Veda contains about one thousand hymns, of which about ten are

accredited to Maitreyi, the woman seer and philosopher. She contributed towards

the enhancement of her sage-husband Yajnavalkya's personality and the flowering

of his spiritual thoughts. Yajnavalkya had two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani.

While Maitreyi was well-versed in the Hindu scriptures and was a

'brahmavadini', Katyayani was an ordinary woman. One day the sage decided to

make a settlement of his worldly possessions between his two wives and renounce

the world by taking up ascetic vows. He asked his wives their wishes. The

learned Maitreyi asked her husband if all the wealth in the world would make

her immortal. The sage replied that wealth could only make one rich, nothing

else. She then asked for the wealth of immortality. Yajnavalkya was happy to

hear this and imparted to Maitreyi the doctrine of the soul and his knowledge

of attaining immortality.

GargiGargi, the Vedic prophetess and daughter of sage Vachaknu, composed several

hymns that questioned the origin of all existence. When King Janak of Videha

organized a 'brahmayajna', a philosophic congress centered around the fire

sacrament, Gargi was one of the eminent participants. She challenged the sage

Yajnavalkya with a volley of perturbing questions on the soul or 'atman' that

confounded the learned man who had till then silenced many an eminent scholar.

Her question - "The layer that is above the sky and below the earth, which is

described as being situated between the earth and the sky and which is

indicated as the symbol of the past, present and future, where is that

situated?" - bamboozled even the great Vedic men of letters.