Re: Women in hinduism?
For one of the best articles about the status of women in Hinduism, check:
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Women_in_Hinduism.htm
Here is a brief:
• As Yajvan has stated in another thread, there were 25 women Rishis in the Vedic times, who had the revelation of Vedas as well as participated in its recitation in the rituals, wearing the sacred thread. Some of the female Rishis were: Visvara, Apala the daughter of Atri, Gosha the daughter of Kaksivant and IndraNi wife of Indra. The Sanskrit feminine terms 'brahmavAdini' (a female Vedic practitioner), 'achAryAni' (a teacher's wife), 'upAdhyAyani' (a preceptor's wife) indicate that women were treated with respect on par with men.
• Hindu history is full of instances of renowned queens who either ruled the state or advised their king-husbands in the rule of the state; there were even women soldiers: Megasthenes (fifth century B.C.E.) mentions heavily armed women guards protecting King Chandragupta's palace.
• The very term 'shakti' for 'power' is feminine; men derived their power from their women. Kings and towns were destroyed because of the wrong done to a single woman: RAvaNa lost his life and city for doing wrong to Sita, the Kauravas for the wrong done to Draupadi, wife of the PANdavas, and King Pandyan Nedunchezhiyan lost his life and the city of Madurai, because he mistakenly killed Kovalan, husband of KaNNaki.
The Hindu religion gives divinity to the Hindu women; the Hindu dharma gives dignity to them in life. Here is a brief of how:
• The manifest Hindu Gods, specially the Trinity of BrahmA, VishNu and Shiva have their consorts. In fact, the ShAkta tradition (worshipping Goddess Mother) is a most powerful tradition in Hinduism, and it is this tradition that influenced Christianity to recognize and honour their women gods.
• Some of the precepts and provisions in the Hindu Dharma ShAstras for women:
01. Apasthamba: Guest, children, elders, sick people, and pregnant women should be fed first.
02. Marriage is allowed by law for those women who fall under these five misfortunes: 1. whose husband is missing, 2. or is dead, 3. or becomes a religious anchorite, 4. or is impotent, 5. or has fallen from caste. (Parasara and Narada).
03. The truest duty of the wife is to serve the husband and not going to pilgrimages or keeping fast, or performing vows, unless with the husband's permission.
04. A girl should be married after reaching years of discretion. A girl who does not know to serve her husband, who does not Know the honor due to him, such a child should not be married by the father nor until she knows the Duties and precepts of religion.
04. A husband should never chastise his wife, but should always maintain her like a mother, even under greatest affliction; should never abandon a chaste and dutiful wife.
05. The wise householder should not even think with evil mind of another's wife, for by so doing he incurs sin.
06. A husband should always satisfy his wife by giving her presents, dresses and money, and also by love, respect and pleasant words, but he should never behave unkindly towards her. O Goddess! a man who is loved by his chaste wife, has acquired all merits and becomes thy beloved.
07. A father should ensure that his daughter is also taught so as to fit her to be a good wife, and mother.
The primary, nature-ordained roles that a woman plays in her life are: mother, wife and daughter. Men play the counterparts of these roles plus the role of the breadwinner. Hindu religion and dharma, besides freeing women of the necessity of being breadwinners while their husbands are alive, has made their household and social lives healthy and prosperous, happy and peaceful, thus fulfilling the main goals of human life.
We can very well understand this from the lives lead by Hindu women in the Hindu societies defined by Hindu dharma, even until as recently as before the Infotech stormed the market and culture as an industry.
• Hindu mothers/wives until the sixtees and seventees, who are today grandmothers, played the main role of housewives all through their lives, without any ambition towards the spoils of western education or employment or the household amenities provided by technology. They ground their seasonings in a grinding stone, wet and dry floor in a stony, mechanical device and even pounded their daily rice in a stone mortar with pestles. They tended their husbands, children, cattle and grains and still had ample leisure time to sleep, read and worship. The result was that the grandmothers were hale and healthy with adequate exercise for their supple and sensitive bodies, peace for their mind and lived a life of activity into advanced age, their eyesight, hearing and other faculties generally intact.
• Hindu daughers until the sixtees and seventees had their school education but did not aspire for jobs; instead they sought to learn arts such as the Karnatic music and dance such as the BharatanAtyam that gave them entertainment, social life, peace and a good physique.
Unfortunately, the technology-driven, west-influenced Hindu society of today is increasingly making Hindu women both subjects and objects of desire, lust and avarice under the guise of modern civilization. The result is that today's office-going Hindu women in general have neither happiness nor peace in their personal and social lives, nor a health that ensures physical acvitity and longevity.
In case someone accuses me of being a male chauvinist, let me state that if I am to be born in the opposite sex in my next birth, I would prefer to be born as an ideal Hindu woman as defined by the Hindu Dharma and depicted in the Hindu PurANas.
Last edited by saidevo; 10 June 2009 at 10:19 PM.
रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
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Originally Posted by Spiritualseeker
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