Vedic Women: Loving, Learned, Lucky!

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Join the Discussion "The Hindu personal law is anti-women and seriously needs a reappraisal... " ~ DUSH123

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VEDIC WOMAN

On March 1, 2001, the Indian Supreme Court in a historic ruling said that Hindu women alone can't form a joint family. It said that the concept of Hindu women forming a joint family by an agreement amongst themselves is contrary to a basic tenet of the Hindu personal law, which requires the presence of a male to constitute a joint family.

Lessons from the Vedas
Don't you think the Hindu personal law needs an amendment? Perhaps the court should learn from the ancient Hindu philosophy of the Vedas, which says:

"The home has, verily, its foundation in the wife" (The Rig Veda).

In fact, the rights enjoyed by the present-day modern Indian woman are sparse compared to that of their Vedic counterparts. Ergo, today's women should endeavor to win back the lost glory and freedom that were theirs in Vedic India, more than 3000 years ago.

During the Vedic age, women were assigned a high place in society. They shared an equal standing with their men folk and enjoyed a kind of liberty that actually had societal sanctions. The ancient Hindu philosophical concept of "shakti" — the feminine principle of energy - was also a product of this age. This took the form of worship of the female idols or goddesses.

Birth of the Goddess
The feminine forms of the Absolute and the popular Hindu goddesses are believed to have taken shape in the Vedic era. These female forms came to represent different feminine qualities and energies of the Brahman. Kali portrays the destructive energy, Durga the protective, Lakshmi the nourishing, and Saraswati the creative.

Here it's notable that Hinduism recognizes both the masculine and feminine attributes of the Divine, and that without honoring the feminine aspects, one cannot claim to know God in his entirety. So we also have many male-female divine-duos like Radha-Krishna, Sita-Ram, Uma-Mahesh, and Lakshmi-Narayan, where the female form is usually addressed first.

Education, By Choice!
Vedic literature praises the birth of a scholarly daughter in these words: "A girl also should be brought up and educated with great effort and care" (Mahanirvana Tantra); and "All forms of knowledge are aspects of Thee; and all women throughout the world are Thy forms" (Devi Mahatmya).

Women who so desired could undergo the sacred thread ceremony or 'Upanayana' (a sacrament to pursue Vedic studies), which is only meant for males even to this day. The mention of female scholars and sages of the Vedic age like Vac, Ambhrni, Romasa, Gargi and Khona in the Vedic lore corroborates this view. These highly intelligent and greatly learned women, who chose the path of Vedic studies, were called 'brahmavadinis', and women who opted out of education for married life were called 'sadyovadhus'. Co-education seems to have existed in this period, and both the sexes got equal attention from the teacher. Moreover, ladies from the Kshatriya caste received martial arts courses and arms training.

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