Quote Originally Posted by ShivaFan View Post
Namaste

Regarding the sacred thread, someone mentioned women cannot wear it nor study the Veda. But is that actually true?

Shri Madhvacharya in his Mahabharatha Tatparya Nirnaya, describes the scholarly nature of Draupadi, the wife of Pandavas as:

"Great women should study the Vedas like Krishnaa (Draupadi)"

This comes from a nice article on ancient female Rishis (Rishikas), that in Rig Veda alone there are around 30 women vedic scholars (rishikas) to whom different hymns have been attributed to (it would seem odd that they wouldn't be able to read the Veda hymns as women of which they are attributed to have fostered):

http://www.hitxp.com/articles/veda/v...-women-school/

Please read and enjoy.
Pranams,

I realize I am going to be flamed once again for insisting on a standard of honesty, but the article above does not quote Madhvacharya at all. It quotes an English sentence which is alleged to be a translation of something Madhvacharya wrote, with no exact verse numbers, so there is absolutely no way of looking it up to see if it is actually there. In other words, the author of this article may very well have taken it completely out of context, if not mistranslated it or made it up entirely. We will never know, since he was not very transparent in his citations.

If any of the revisionists would like to introduce me to Maadhva Veda scholars who are female, have sacred thread, and recite gAyatrI mantra, I would certainly be interested to correct my understanding on this point. I won't be holding my breath, however.