Women in Hinduism
The Devi Sukta hymn of the Rigveda declares feminine energy to be the essence of the universe, the one who creates all matter and consciousness, the eternal and infinite, the metaphysical and empirical reality (Brahman), the soul (supreme self) of everything.
The 8th century poet, Bhavabhuti describes in his play, Uttararamacharita (verse 2–3), how the character, Atreyi, travelled to southern India where she studied the Vedas and Indian philosophy.
[24] The goddess asserts she does not reside in woman who is sinful, unclean, always disagreeing with her husband, has no patience or fortitude, is lazy, quarrelsome with her neighbors and relatives.
[51] This construction of personal law during the colonial era created a legal fiction around Manusmriti's historic role as a scripture in matters relating to women in South Asia.
[58] The Devi Mahatmya presents the idea, states McDaniel, of a divine she who creates this universe, is the supreme knowledge, who helps herself and men reach final liberation, she is multitasking who in times of prosperity is Lakshmi brings wealth and happiness to human homes, yet in times of adversity feeds and fights the battle as the angry woman destroying demons and evil in the universe after metamorphosing into Durga, Chandika, Ambika, Bhadrakali, Ishvari, Bhagvati, Sri or Devi.
[63] No one has a list of the millions of goddesses and gods, but all deities, state scholars, are typically viewed in Hinduism as "emanations or manifestation of gender-less principle called Brahman, representing the many facets of Ultimate Reality".
Many stories from the Upanishads of female scholars, such as Jābālā's tale, Maitreyi, Gārgī, Lopāmudrā, and Haimavatī Umā, demonstrate the dignity accorded to Women.
The quote prescribes the specific rituals for obtaining a learned daughter.Verse 6.4.17 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:अथ य इच्छेद्दुहिता मे पण्डिता जायेत, सर्वमायुरियादिति, तिलौदनं पाचयित्वा सर्पिष्मन्तमश्नीयाताम्; ईश्वरौ जनयितवै ॥ १७ ॥atha ya icchedduhitā me paṇḍitā jāyeta, sarvamāyuriyāditi, tilaudanaṃ pācayitvā sarpiṣmantamaśnīyātām; īśvarau janayitavai || 17 ||"One who wishes that a daughter should be born who would be a scholar and attain a full term of life, should have rice cooked with sesamum, and both should eat it with clarified butter.
[8][80] Historical eyewitness reports (discussed below), suggest dowry in pre-11th century CE Hindu society was insignificant, and daughters had inheritance rights, which by custom were exercised at the time of her marriage.
[82] They (these ancient Indian people) make their marriages accordance with this principle, for in selecting a bride they care nothing whether she has a dowry and a handsome fortune, but look only to her beauty and other advantages of the outward person.
Arrian's second book similarly notes, They (Indians) marry without either giving or taking dowries, but the women as soon as they are marriageable are brought forward by their fathers in public, to be selected by the victor in wrestling or boxing or running or someone who excels in any other manly exercise.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has a collection of such paintings on the Subject of Sati, readily available through internet search engines, which show widows being either drowned or burnt on husband's funeral pyre or buried alive.
[96] However, according to the textbook, "Religions in the Modern World", after the death of Roop Kanwar on her husband's funeral pyre in 1987, thousands saw this as cruel murder.
[98] According to Bose, jauhar practice grew in the 14th and 15th century with Hindu-Muslim wars of northwest India, where the Hindu women preferred death than the slavery or rape they faced if captured.
[103] This chronology has led to the theory that the increase in sati practice in India may be related to the centuries of Islamic invasion and its expansion in South Asia.
[10][11] Daniel Grey states that the understanding of origins and spread of Sati were distorted in the colonial era because of a concerted effort to push "problem Hindu" theories in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Like the Vedas, the ancient Sutras and Shastra Sanskrit texts extended education right to women, and the girls who underwent this rite of passage then pursued studies were called Brahmavadini.
[110] The Arthashastra (~200 BCE to 300 CE) mentions a range of clothing and plant-based, muslin-based, wool-based textiles that are partially or fully dyed, knitted and woven.
[111][112] It is, however, uncertain how women wore these clothing, and scholars have attempted to discern the dress from study of murti (statues), wall reliefs, and ancient literature.
[113] In ancient and medieval Hindu traditions, covering the head or face was neither mandated nor common, but Ushnisha – a regional ceremonial occasion headdress is mentioned, as is Dupatta in colder, drier northern parts of Indian subcontinent.
][better source needed] Bernard Cohn (2001) states that clothing in India, during the colonial British era, was a form of authority exercised to highlight hierarchical patterns, subordination, and authoritative relations.
[131] Baumer states that the resulting Sanskrit Theater has its origins in the Vedas, stemming from three principles: “The cosmic man (purusha), the self (atman), and the universal being (brahman)".
[133] In religious ceremonies, such as the ancient Shrauta and Grihya sutras rituals, texts by Panini, Patanjali, Gobhila and others state that women sang hymns or uttered mantras along with men during the yajnas.
[138] In poetry, 9th-century Andal became a well known Bhakti movement poetess, states Pintchman, and historical records suggest that by 12th-century she was a major inspiration to Hindu women in south India and elsewhere.
[145] Hinduism considers the connection, interdependence, and complementary nature of these two concepts – Prakriti and Purusha, female and male – as the basis of all existence, which is a starting point of the position of women in Hindu traditions.
[153] There has been a pervasive and deeply held belief in modern era Western scholarship, states Professor Kathleen Erndl, that "in Hinduism, women are universally subjugated and that feminism, however, it might be defined, is an artifact of the West".
[154][157] Western feminism, states Vasudha Narayanan, has focussed on negotiating "issues of submission and power as it seeks to level the terrains of opportunity" and uses a language of "rights".
[160][161] The 6th-century Devi Mahatmya text, for example, states Cynthia Humes, actually shares "the postmodern exaltation of embodiedness, divinizing it as does much of the Western feminist spirituality movement".
[163] Postmodern empirical scholarship about Hindu society, states Rita Gross, makes one question whether and to what extent there is pervasiveness of patriarchy in Hinduism.
[165][166] Kathleen Erndl states that texts such as Manusmriti do not necessarily portray what women in Hinduism were or are, but it represents an ideology, and that "the task of Hindu feminists is to rescue Shakti from its patriarchal prison".
