Vedas,women,sudras...

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Sri:

Srimathe Ramanujaya nama:

Dear bhAgavathAs,

Salutations to all. Advanced apologies for anything written

in ignorance. Please feel free to share your thoughts. I feel the

topic of vedas,women and shudras has taken a detour. The actual

question was why women and sudras are not privileged to learn the

vedas.

 

Strictly speaking,varNAshrama dharma has collapsed in

this kaliyuga(few people could be exceptions in relation to the

world's population). Which brAhmaNa(male) seeks alms or goes for

unjavrtti and lead his daily life? It applies to other varNAs too. I

know quite a number of people belonging to the kshatriya and vaishya

who are phds and do not perform what is enjoined for them in the

vedas. I always find solace in Sri ParAsara Bhattar's statements amd

Sri Bhattar had instantaneous solutions to "you-name-it-problem".

 

Leaving all this side,let us come to the main topic of

women and sudras. If karma kANda is mandatory and pre-requisite for

learning j~nAna kANda,then based on the natural physical problems

that exist for women,it can be justified that they are not allowed to

undergo vedic lessons if not the proof becomes difficult. Still the

problem doesn't answer why sudras are not allowed and frankly

speaking I haven't seen anyone giving a convincing answer to this

question. PS:I never had the fortune to question or interact with

great AcAryAs along these lines.

 

With so much advancement in Science and Technology,women

can find solace in allopathic medicine for the benefits that it

offers but they have to pay a price for the side effects. Women can

postpone their menstrual cycle with 100% guarantee and I personally

know a dozen women who had their marriage ceremonies postponing their

cycles. But then a cyclic process may become acyclic and hence it is

advised to leave it to nature. As far I know there is no natural

remedy for postponing the cycle(hence resort to allopathy) but there

is plenty to prepone the cycle and even abort the baby if one doesn't

want. I doubt if this problem can be given as a strong reason for

women not to participate in prabandha ghOShTi.

 

I haven't heard a person, with a horrible voice,after

changing his/her vocal chords, become a great singer. There is a

fundamental base pitch in case of both men and women. Women's pitch

become fixed and it can not be altered while men's pitch is flexible.

No matter what the student's(or the master's) natural pitch is,he/she

can still learn under a male tuitor without compromising his/her

original pitch and this is not case with a female tuitor. Whenever

there is a duet,it is normally males' voice that is adjusted

according to the female's pitch. Men with different pitches can still

make a nice chorus song but in the case of women it will sound

cacophonous. For learning music,one has to have a "reasonable" good

voice while it is not a must to learn prabandham(all it requires is

the desire for the Lord).

 

When both men and women musicians sing panca ratna krtis,it

can be easily synchronised as most of their voices would fall in

an "accepatble" ranges. Even here they have to prcatise because each

of their style(depending on the master who teaches) may be different.

There is a group of students near my place who are all very good

singers(my cousin has a style of Alathur brothers and Chemmangudi,one

has the style of Brinda sisters,another is a direct disciple of TN

Sheshagopalan,one is a student of TN Rukmini) and they sing

pancaratna without prior practise and it sounds so horrible to hear

the chorus and I recorded their voice and played it back for them and

they all laughed. We can not do this kind of gimmicks and take care

of acoustic arrangemnts everytime for prabandha ghOShTi. In the case

of panca ratna we can still distinctly hear male and female voices

and we don't want this in prabandha/veda chorus. We want to be heard

as though only one person recites/chants. The best solution is to

filter out women(however gruff a female voice is,still it can be

distinguished from the male voice). Please forgive if this post has

offended anyone even in the slightest way.

 

AzhvAr EmperumAnAr JIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam

NC Nappinnai