As we have just observed the anniversary of Women’s Day (March 8), it seems appropriate to examine the status of Indian women through the vicissitudes of time and cull valuable lessons for the future. We need neither glorify nor demonise the past, but should examine it dispassionately to extract such material as facilitates our onward journey.
The Vedic era was the high noon of women’s social status. They received Vedic education and were entitled to offer sacrifices to gods. Upto the third century BC, girls could remain unmarried till 16 years of age and often found their own partners. The Atharva Veda observed that only a girl properly trained during the period of studentship (brahmacharya) could succeed in her marriage. Widowhood was not an insuperable burden as remarriage was common, as was the custom of levirate, which entitled a childless widow to conceive and continue the line of her deceased husband. In other words, it was an open society.
The educational accomplishments of women can be gauged from the fact that hymns composed by Lopamudra, Visvavara, Sikatga Nivavari and Ghosha were incorporated into the Rig Veda. Besides, Sulabha Maitreyi, Vadava Prathiteyi and Gargi Vachaknavi rank among the scholars to whom daily tribute is paid at the time of brahmayajna. There was even a special category of female students, Brahmavadinis, who devoted their lives to the pursuit of theology and philosophy.
Yajnavalkya’s wife Maitreyi participated in the philosophical movement that resulted in the Upanishads around 800 BC. During the intellectual contest sponsored by Janaka of Videha, Gargi represented all the distinguished philosophers at the court and raised such subtle philosophical queries that Yajnavalkya refused to discuss them publicly.
Buddha’s admission of women to his Order stimulated women’s education in commercial and aristocratic families; many embraced lives of celibacy and studied religion and philosophy. Sanghamitra took the faith to Sri Lanka. The authoresses of the Therigatha included 32 unmarried and 10 married women, all of whom are said to have attained nirvana. Jain tradition records that Jayanti, daughter of King Sahasranika of Kausambi, remained unmarried and received ordination from Mahavira himself.
The first millennium AD saw several famous lady scholars. Hala included the works of seven poetesses – Reva, Roha, Madhavi, Anulakshmi, Pahai, Vaddhavahi and Sasiprabha – in his anthology, Gathasaptasati. Sanskrit anthologies preserved the memory of poetesses like Silabhattarika. Devi was a renowned poetess of Gujarat; Vijayanka was second only to Kalidasa.
Girls from ruling families received military and administrative training. Queens like Nayanika of the Satavahana dynasty (2nd century BC), Prabhavati Gupta of the Vakataka family (4th century AD), Vijayabhattarika of the Chalukya house (7th century AD) and Sugandha and Didda of Kashmir (10th century AD) ruled large kingdoms as regents of minor sons. Queen governors and officers were fairly common in the Chalukya administration (c. 980-1160 AD). Ordinary Kshatriya families also gave military training to girls, and the female guards of kings hailed from this class.
Rajput princesses were adept in the use of sword and spear, and could lead armies and run the government. Kurmadevi, wife of King Samarasi, took over the kingdom on her husband’s death and defeated Kutub-ud-Din. Javahirdevi, wife of King Sanga, died defending Chittor after her husband’s death. Maratha royal families maintained the tradition of giving military training to girls as late as the 17th and 18th centuries. Rani Bimabai, daughter of Yeshwantrao Holkar, told Sir John Malcolm that a Maratha princess was duty-bound to lead her troops in person when there was no husband or son to do so. Tarabai of Kolhapur led her army and ran her state, as did Lakshmibai of Jhansi.
Yet the past was by no means perfect. Among ancient customs, sati, recorded even by Alexander’s historians, is probably the most controversial. It had no place in the Vedas, but was respectable in the Mahabharata. By all accounts it seems to have been confined to elite warrior clans; its spread to other castes occurred much later. By the time Rammohan Roy took up cudgels against sati, it had degenerated into a wicked ruse to deprive rich widows of their husband’s estate and bring false prestige to families. After the sensational Deorala sati (1988), as the nation affirmed the unacceptability of the practice, it should be borne in mind that from the very beginning, sages and thinkers had hotly debated the custom and many considered it a social evil. It may also be appropriate to mention that another evil – female infanticide – was never widespread, but crept into a small section of society as a result of the horrors of the medieval period.
The depredations of the medieval period cruelly affected women’s literacy. Rich and cultured families were ruined and could not afford to educate their daughters. Girls in some communities remained literate (Rajput, Nair, Jain), but the overall decline was so rapid that by the time of British rule, female education had virtually disappeared.
Interestingly, a keynote of women’s empowerment – the right to property – was, like education, well entrenched in ancient India. Despite theories of perpetual tutelage postulated by some thinkers, the property rights of women expanded over the ages. Manu resiled from his position on subordination and ruled that even adult males could not demand partition of their fathers’ estate in the lifetime of their mother. Though there were limits on women’s power to dispose of immoveable property, male rights were also curtailed in this respect. Modern India has only to look back in order to leap into the future.
Sahara Time, 20 March 2004