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The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c12: Chapter VII. Women and Religion

The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c12

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English

Contents

Chapter VII. Women and Religion

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Let us consider in this chapter the place and privileges which Hindu religion accorded to women. In the present age when religion is gradually losing its hold on popular mind, the subject may appear as of no great importance to some of our readers. The case, however, was quite different in the past. Religious rights and privileges were valued most highly; even political and proprietary rights faded before them in importance. The social status of an individual was vitally connected with the place which religion accorded to him in its rites and rituals. Privileges accorded or denied to women by religion will therefore throw valuable light on their position in society.

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In his early history man is seen excluding woman from religious service almost everywhere because he regarded her as unclean, mainly on account of her periodical menstruation. During this period the woman was the object of the greatest dread. The case is on record of an Australian aborigine going stark mad because he had unknowingly touched the blanket used by his wife during her period, and then killing first his wife and then himself under the influence of his frenzy. The dread which this Australian felt was shared by the average man in his early history, when he did not know the physiological causes of the mysterious phenomenon, which he feared so much.

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The Aryans also regarded the woman as untouchable during her monthly period. This was the case as early as the Indo-Iranian age. Like the Hindus, the Iranians also used to segregate women during this period and regard them as religiously impure (Vendi-dad, 16). The Vedic age assigned this temporary impurity of women to their taking over from Indra one third the sin of Brahmana murder, which he incurred when he had killed Vṛitra (*T. S.*, II, 5, 1, 5-7). During this period, therefore, Hindu society has been regarding women as extremely impure and temporarily untouchable. Even the sight of their person and the sound of their voice were to be avoided. Hygienic rules often appear in the form of religious taboos in Hindu culture, and there can be no doubt that the complete isolation of women that was insisted upon during this period was partly due to the desire of ensuring complete rest which is so desirable for them at this time.

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Child bearing was regarded as the special function of women, and evil spirits were believed, to be very anxious to visit them during their periods to prevent conception. In the Vedic age brides were grown up in marriage and its consummation took place usually on the 4th day. One Vedic stanza in the marriage hymn prays that the bride should have no evil eye, and hopes that she would not be the cause of the sudden death of her husband¹. We can understand this strange prayer only if we note the belief of the early times that evil spirits, haunting the person of the bride, render her touch and sight very dangerous to her husband. One stanza of the marriage hymn expressly refers to a female spirit taking possession of the bride and attempting to do harm to her husband through her person¹. The prayer, above referred to, praying that the bride may not be the cause of her husband's death is a magical formula intended to immunise the husband from the possible consequences of his contact with the evil spirits, haunting his bride at the time of the menstruation and consummation.

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¹ अघोरचक्षुरपतिघ्नी एधि । *R. V.*, X, 85, 44.

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¹ कृत्यैषा पद्वती भूत्वा जाया विशते पतिम् ॥ *R. V.*, X, 85, 29.

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From the Vedic time downwards women have been regarded as impure during the time of confinement also. The phenomenon of menstruation is repeated at the child-birth. It was besides apprehended that evil spirits would be haunting the mother during her confinement on account of their eagerness to kill new-born babies.

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Apart from the periods of menstruation and confinement women were not regarded as impure by religion. It is true that a ceremony to purify the wife before her participation in sacrifices has been enjoined (*Ś. Br.*, V, 2, 1, 8-10); we cannot, however, attach much importance to it, for a similar purification has been prescribed for men also (*T. Br.*, 1, 3, 7). In the Vedic age women enjoyed all the religious rights and privileges, which men possessed. In Chapter I we have seen that women used to receive Vedic education. Some of them were even the authors of Vedic hymns (*ante*, pp. 11-12). They therefore could recite Vedic hymns as a matter of course.

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Some women, especially unmarried ones, are seen offering Vedic sacrifices all by themselves. In one place we find a maiden finding a shoot of the Soma shrub while returning from her bath, and straightway offering it in sacrifice to Indra, when she reached home¹. In another place we find a lady, named Viśvavārā, getting up early in the morning and starting the sacrifice all by herself². In the Vedic age there were no images to worship or temples to visit. The Bhakti school, advocating simple prayer to God by mere songs of devotion, was yet to come into prominence, as also the Jñāna theory recommending merely the contemplation of Brahman or Ātman. So the offering of sacrifice was the only popular and well-established method of worshipping divine powers. Naturally therefore it could not be interdicted to women, especially because they were all initiated into Vedic studies after their *upanayana*. All of them therefore could offer sacrifices after their initiation.

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¹ कन्या वारयावती सोममपि स्रुता विदत् । अरुस्तं भरन्त्यब्रवीदिन्द्राह सुनवै त्वा ॥ VIII, 91, 1.

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² एति प्राची विश्ववारा नमोभिर्देवाँ ईळाना हविषा घृताची ॥ V, 28, 1.

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Marriage, and not renunciation, was the ideal recommended to society by Vedic religion. The woman therefore was not an impediment in the path of religion; her presence and cooperation were absolutely necessary in religious rites and ceremonies. This naturally increased her religious value. Man could not become a spiritual whole, unless he was accompanied by his wife; gods do not accept the oblations offered by a bachelor¹. The husband alone cannot go to heaven; in the symbolical ascent to heaven in the sacrifice, he has to call his wife to accompany him on the occasion (*Ś. Br.*, V, 2, 1, 8). A son was indispensable for spiritual well-being in the life to come, and he could be had only through the wife. She was thus indispensable from the spiritual and religious points of view. This circumstance was responsible for ensuring her a religious status as high as that of her husband.

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¹ अयज्ञीयो वैष योऽपत्नीकः । *S. Br.*, V. 1, 6, 10. A similar view is expressed in Avesta also.

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Normally, religious prayers and sacrifices were offered jointly by the husband and the wife. There are several references to couples waxing old in their joint worship of gods². The wife used to take an active and real part in family sacrifices. Like the husband, she too had to perform a special *upanayana* on the occasion of some sacrifices. She had her own hut in the sacrificial compound, and also her own cow to provide her with sacred milk during the sacrifice (*Ś. Br.*, X, 2, 3, 1; XIV, 3, 1, 35). In the early Vedic period, the duty of chanting musically the Sāma songs seems to have been usually performed by the wife³; later on it came to be entrusted to a special class of male priests called Udgātṛis. The wife used to pound the sacrificial rice, give bath to the animal that was to be immolated and lay in bricks, when the altar was to be built (*Ś. Br.*, VI, 5, 3, 1; III, 8, 2, 1-6). She participated with her husband in the preparation of the offering, the consecration of the fire, the offering of the oblations and the concluding ceremonies. She herself had to recite some formulæ. It is true that sometimes these had to be dictated to her¹, but the case was probably the same with her husband also with reference to the prayers in many of the sacrifices. Women's participation in Vedic sacrifices was thus a real and not a formal one; they enjoyed the same religious privileges as their husbands.

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² बृहद्वयो बृहते तुभ्यमग्ने धियाजुरो मिथुनासः सचन्तः । *R.V.*, V, 53, 15. प्र त्वा ततस्रे मिथुना अवस्यवः । *Ibid*, I, 133, 3. See also I, 72, 5.

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³ पत्नीकर्मैव एतेऽत्र कुर्वन्ति यदुद्गातारः । *Ś. Br.*, XIV, 3, 1, 35.

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¹ तां वाचयति नमस्ते भ्रातान् इति । *Ibid*, III, 8, 2, 4.

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If the husband was away on a journey, the wife alone performed the various sacrifices, which the couple had to offer jointly. This was the case in the Indo-Iranian period as well (Erpatistan, Fargard 1). This practice continued down to the Sūtra period (*c.* 500 B. C.).

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Indrāṇī in one place proudly claims that she had started some rites and rituals². Gods and goddesses are usually fashioned after the human model. We may therefore well infer that a few lady theologians may have made some contributions to the development of the Vedic ritual. What Indrāṇī did may well have been possible for some of the cultured ladies of the Vedic age, whose songs have been honoured by their inclusion in the Vedic Saṁhitā. We have, however, no direct evidence on the point.

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² वेधा ऋतस्य वीरिणीन्द्रपत्नी महीयते । *R. V.*, X,86,10.

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There were some sacrifices which could be offered by women alone down to *c.* 500 B. C. Sītā sacrifice, intended to promote a rich harvest, was one of them. Rudrabali was another; it was intended to ensure prosperity and fecundity among the cattle (*P. G. S.*, II, 17; III, 8, 10). Rudrayāga, intended to secure good luck to maidens in marriage, was a third one. The last mentioned sacrifice could of course be performed by women alone; in the case of the earlier two, it is possible that the exclusive association of women with them was due to the theory that since they are intended to promote rich harvest and fertility, they should be performed by women alone, who are their visible symbols.

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If the husband was out on a journey, or if his co-operation was unavailable for any other similar reason, then the wife could offer the sacrifices all alone. On the morning of Rāma's installation as the crown prince, Kauśalyā is seen performing all alone the Svastiyāga to ensure felicity to her son¹; she was the neglected wife, and probably she felt that it would be too much to expect her husband to come to participate in the sacrifice. At that time he was as a matter of fact engaged in assuaging the wrath of his favourite wife Kaikeyī. Similarly Tārā is represented by Vālmīki as performing alone the Svasti sacrifice, when her husband Vālī was about to issue out to fight with Sugrīva. This was probably because Vālī was then too busily engaged in equipping himself to find time to participate in his wife's sacrifice. These instances show that in the early period women's participation in sacrifices was a real one; nay, very often husbands used to leave the whole affair to the exclusive charge of their wives, when they were otherwise very busy.

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¹ सा क्षौमवसना देवी नित्यं व्रतोपायणा । अग्निं जुहोति स्म तदा मन्त्रवत्कृतमंगला ॥ II, 20, 15.

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The normal practice, however, was that the couple would jointly perform the various sacrifices.

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Intercaste *anuloma* marriages were permitted during this period. What then was the religious status of wife who belonged to a lower caste? Could she participate in sacrifices? Later writers like Manu no doubt ordain that only the wife of the same caste could be associated with the husband in the sacrifices. The view of the earlier age was different; it allowed a *dvija* wife of the lower caste also full religious privileges, if she were the only wife of the husband¹. A Śūdra wife, or a wife for whom a bride-price had been paid, was however not entitled to any religious rights and privileges.

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¹ मिश्रासु (बहुभार्यासु) कनिष्ठयापि सवर्णया (धर्मकार्यं कुर्यात्) । समानवर्णाया अभावे त्वनन्तरयैवं चापादि च । न त्वेव द्विजः शूद्रया । *Vishṇu*, ch. XXIV ; see also *Manu*, IX, 87; *V. D. S.*, XVIII, 17.

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The participation in sacrifices presupposed Vedic study, and we have shown already in Chapter I how girls used to devote themselves to it during their maidenhood (*ante*, p. 11-3). The Initiation Ceremony (*upanayana*) of girls used to take place as regularly as that of boys at the normal time. This was the case as early as the Indo-Iranian age. The Parsis have still preserved this custom; Naojot ritual, which corresponds to Hindu *upanayana*, is even now performed by them regularly in the case of girls as well. In India, the initiation of girls used to take place regularly down to the beginning of the Christian era. The Vedic age held that Brahmacharya discipline and training was as much necessary for girls as it was for boys². It was apprehended that if the most important religious Saṁskāra of *upanayana* was not performed in the case of girls, women would be automatically reduced to the status of Śūdras ; how then could Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas be born of them ?¹ *Upanayana* of women was absolutely indispensable, if the cultural tradition of the different Aryan classes was to be preserved.

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² ब्रह्मचर्येण कन्या युवानं विन्दते पतिम् ॥ *A. V.*, XI, 5, 18.

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¹ न हि शूद्रयोनौ ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियवैश्या जायन्ते । Hārīta XXI, 20, quoted at *Par. Mād.*, Vol. I, part 2, p. 48.

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After their *upanayana* girls used to follow a discipline more or less similar to that of boys. They were, however, shown certain concessions. They were not to grow matted hair. Like boys, they were not to go out to beg their daily food. As far as possible, they were to be taught by their near relations like the father, the uncle or the brother. They were permitted to discontinue their course, when their marriages were settled at about the age of 16 or 17. A few, however, continued their studies for a much longer time and were known as Brahmavādinīs². It is a great pity that most of the above rules about the *upanayana* of girls should have to be gathered from works written at a time when the custom was rapidly going out of vogue, or had already ceased to be followed. We therefore get only very scrappy and iusufficient information on the subject.

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² तत्र ब्रह्मवादिनीनामग्नीन्धनं वेदाध्ययनं स्वगृहे च भैक्षचर्येति । सद्योवधूनां तूपस्थिते विवाहे कथंचिदुपनयनमात्रं कृत्वा विवाहः कार्यः । पुराकल्पे तु नारीणां मौंजीबंधनमिष्यते । अध्यापनं च वेदानां सावित्रीवचनं तथा । पिता पितृव्यो भ्राता वा नैनामध्यापयेत्परः । स्वगृहे चैव कन्याया भैक्षचर्या विधीयते । वर्जयेदजिनं चीरं जटाधारणमेव च ॥ Hārīta and Yama quoted in *V. M. S.*, p. 402.

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We have seen already (*ante*, pp. 12-14) how after their *upanayana* women used to specialise in Vedic theology and philosophy. Nay, some of them figure among the authors of Vedic hymns, the very reading of which was going to be prohibited to their sex by a later age. Women held that they were inherently entitled to study the Vedas ; we find a sweetheart flatly declining to marry her lover, when she suspected that he was disinclined to reveal to her some of his Vedic dogmas and theories (*T. Br.*, II, 3, 10). When *upanayana* of girls was common, it is needless to add that women used to offer morning and evening prayers as regularly as men ; the Rāmāyaṇa twice discloses Sītā discharging this religious duty¹.

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¹ वाग्यतास्ते त्रयः संध्यां समुपासत संहिताः (ते त्रयःरामलक्ष्मणसीताः) II, 87, 19. सन्ध्याकालमनाः श्यामा ध्रुवमेष्यति जानकी । नदीं चेमां शिवजलां सन्ध्यार्थे वरवर्णिनी ॥ V, 14, 48.

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During the age of the Brāhamaṇas (*c.* 1500 to 1000 B.C.), the volume of Vedic studies became very extensive, as a number of subsidiary sciences were developed and lengthy commentaries were written on Vedic texts. The spoken dialect of the age had begun to differ considerably from the language of the Vedic hymns, and the theory had found universal acceptance that to commit a single most minor mistake in the recitation of a Vedic Mantra would produce most disastrous consequences to the reciter². As a natural consequence, society began to insist that those who wanted to undertake Vedic studies must be prepared to devote a fairly long period, of about 12 to 16 years to the task. We have seen above (*ante*, pp. 60-62) that at this time women used to be married at about the age of 16 or 17, and could thus give only 7 or 8 years to their Vedic studies. So short a period was quite insufficient for an efficient grounding in the Vedic lore in the age of the Brāhamaṇas. Society was not prepared to tolerate dilettante Vedic studies, and as a consequence, lady Vedic scholars began to become rarer and rarer.

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² मंत्रो हीनः स्वरतो वर्णतो वा मिथ्याप्रयुक्तो न तमर्थमाह । स वाग्वज्रो यजमानं हिनस्ति यथेन्द्रशत्रुः स्वरतोऽपराधात् ॥ *Pāṇinīśikshā*, 52.

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Vedic sacrifices also became very complicate at this time; they could be properly performed only by those who had studied their minute intricacies very carefully. As a consequence, the participation of women in sacrifices gradually became a mere matter of formality. For some time wives continued to perform the duties that were formerly allotted to them in sacrifices, but gradually a tendency arose to allot most of the sacrificial work to males. Many sacrificial duties that could be once discharged by the wife alone, came to be assigned to male substitutes in the age of the Brāhmaṇas¹. In some rituals like the Srastarārohaṇa, women continued to take a prominent part and recite the Vedic Mantras down to *c.* 500 B. C.(*P. G. S.*, III, 2), but the practice was becoming gradually unpopular. The wife was originally entitled to offer oblations in the Gṛihya fire in the absence of the husband; now a son, or a brother-in-law began to act in her place (*S.G.S.*, II, 17, 13). She continued to perform the evening sacrifice down to the beginning of the Christian era, but the recitation of the Vedic Mantras was prohibited to her on the occasion¹.

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¹ तद्भास्मौतत्पुरा जायैव हविष्कृदुपतिष्ठति । तदिदमप्येतर्हि य एव कश्चनोपतिष्ठति । *Ś. Br.*, I, 1, 4, 18.

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¹ सायमन्रस्य पक्वस्य पत्न्यमन्त्रं बलिं हरेत् । *Manu*, III, 121.

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As amateurish Vedic studies could not, be encouraged, and as women had now to take a purely formal part in sacrifices, the *upanayana* of girls began to become a mere formality in course of time. At *c.* 500 B. C., as we learn from Hārīta, only a few Brahmavādinīs used to devote themselves seriously to Vedic studies after their *upanayana*; in the case of the vast majority of girls the formality of the sacrament was somehow gone through just before their marriage². A few centuries rolled on in this way and then writers like Manu began to advocate that girls’ *upanayana* may be performed, but no Vedic Mantras should be recited on the occasion³. This development may be placed at about the beginning of the Christian era. *Upanayana* without Vedic Mantras being recited in and taught after the ritual was a contradiction in terms, and so later writers like Yājñavalkya began to advocate the more honest and straightforward course of prohibiting the ceremony altogether in the case of girls (I, 13). A theory was started that the marriage ritual in the case of girls really served the entire purpose of *upanayana*; service of the husband corresponded to the service of the preceptor, and household duties were a nice substitute for the service of the sacrificial fire¹. *Upanayana* therefore was unnecessary for girls. It may have been prescribed for them in a former age, but that rule was a dead letter in the present one. It is interesting to see how later writers like Medhātithi proceed to explain away clear passages in earlier texts permitting women's *upanayana* (On *Manu*, V, 155). Eventually medieval digest writers like Mitramiśra made wonderful discoveries of stray passages from lost Purāṇas, which boldly declared that women have the same status as that of the Śūdras and are therefore altogether ineligible for *upanayana*².

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² *Ante*, p. 237, n. 2.

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³ अमंत्रिका तु कार्येयं स्त्रीणामावृदशेषतः । *Manu*, II, 66. This verse occurs after the description of *upanayana*.

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¹ वैवाहिको विधिः स्त्रीणां संस्कारो वैदिकः स्मृतः । पतिसेवा गुरौ वासो गृहार्थोऽग्निपरिक्रिया ॥ *Ibid*., II, 67.

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² वदन्ति केचिन्मुनयः स्त्रीणां शूद्रसमानताम् । *Purāṇāntara* quoted by Mitramiśra in *VM.*, Paribhāshā, p. 40.

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Minor religious rituals like the Jātakarma, Nāmakaraṇa, Chūḍa, etc. were originally performed just as regularly in the case of girls as they were in that of boys. When *upanayana* was discontinued in the case of girls, it began to be advocated that other rituals also should be permitted to them, only if they were performed without the recitation of the Vedic Mantras. This position has been taken up by almost all the Smṛiti writers.

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The prohibition of *upanayana* amounted to spiritual disenfranchisement of women and produced a disastrous effect upon their general position in society. It reduced them to the status of Śūdras. We have seen how in the earlier age women could, if necessary, perform sacrifices all by themselves. But now Manu came forward to declare that a pious Brahmana should not attend a sacrifice, which is performed by women (IV, 205). There were many Śruti texts which clearly declared that the husband and the wife were to perform the Vedic sacrifices jointly. When the *upanayana* of women became a mere formality at about 200 B. C., there arose a school which advocated that wives should not be associated with their husbands even formally in the performance of Vedic sacrifices. It argued quite seriously that the references in sacred texts to the sacrificers in the dual number did not refer to the husband and the wife, but to the sacrificer and the priest (*P. M.*, VI, 1, 2, 2) !

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This new theory was opposed by the orthodox tradition, as it was all along accustomed to see sacrifices being jointly performed by the husband and the wife. The wife’s participation had no doubt become a formal one, but society was not prepared to stop it altogether. Jaimini was the spokesman of the orthodox school, and he has explained very clearly how the references to the sacrificers in the dual number can denote only the husband and the wife. While doing so, however, he emphatically declares that a woman alone is quite ineligible to perform any sacrifice. ‘The woman can stand no comparison with man. The sacrificer is learned, his wife is ignorant’¹. The new theory took some time to popularise. In Jaimini’s own time queen Nayanikā of the Deccan performed a number of Vedic sacrifices during her widowhood, and there was no dearth of learned Brahmanas to accept her handsome gifts on the occasion¹. The practice of women performing sacrifices by themselves, however, died down by the beginning of the Christian era. As pointed out already, Manu is seen condemning it sternly in his code². The Smṛiti school on the whole was inclined to curtail the earlier religious rights and privileges of women, mainly because *upanayana* was no longer performed in their case. Those, who had not undergone this Vedic Saṁskāra were naturally held to be incompetent to offer Vedic sacrifices.

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¹ अतुल्या हि स्त्री पुंसा । यजमानः पुमान् विद्वांश्च । पत्नी स्त्री चाविद्या च । *P.M.*, VI, 1, 24.

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¹ गृ‍हतापताय चरितब्रह्मचरियाय दिक्स्रतयंञसमुदाय यंञा हुता भागधेय...अनारभनीयो राजसूययंञो...असमेधो....गर्गतिरतो.. । *A.S.W.I.*, V, p. 88.

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² नाश्रोत्रियतते यज्ञा ग्रामयाजिकृते तथा । स्त्रिया क्लीबेन च हुते भुंजीत ब्राह्मणः क्वचित् ॥ V, 205.

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The prohibition of Vedic sacrifices to women did not, however, produce any long standing hardship; for these sacrifices themselves soon went out of vogue. Neither men nor women were eager to perform them from about the beginning of the Christian era. What however did infinite harm to women was the theory that they were ineligible for them because they were of the status of the Śūdras. Henceforward they began to be bracketed with Śūdras and other backward classes in society. This we find to be the case even in the *Bhagavadgītā* (IX, 32).

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It must be here pointed out that the exclusion of women from Vedic studies and sacrifices was not due to any deliberate plan to lower their status. Custodians of the Vedic lore honestly believed that no one should be allowed to recite and use the Vedic Mantras, who had not studied them properly. Women found it impossible to devote the necessary time for this purpose on account of their early marriages. It was therefore but fair that they should not be allowed to invite on themselves and their relations those dreadful calamities, which were honestly believed to result from an incorrect recitation of the Vedic stanzas¹. The desire was not to humiliate women, but rather to save them from dire consequences.

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¹ See, *ante*, p. 238 n. 2.

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When the Vedic Karmamārga gradually went into background, its place was taken by the new Bhakti and Pauranik schools, which rose into prominence at *c.* 500 A. D. The leaders of these movements had a catholic outlook and threw open their doors to all, irrespective of sex and caste. This was a welcome development for women. Their religious disenfranchisement had created a vacuum; it was filled by the Bhakti-Pauranik religion. In fact they became its *de facto* custodians.

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Women are by nature more religious and devotional than men. They can visit temples with greater regularity, perform sacred rites with higher faith and submit to religious fasts with more alacrity than men. The Pauranik religion, which came into prominence by *c.* 500 A. D., made ample provisions for the religious requirements of women. As early as the 3rd century B.C., women were already accustomed to perform a number of vows and fasts (*vratas*), which were unknown to Śrutis and Smṛitis. They are referred to by Asoka in his Rock Edict No. IX,² and the *Vivādavatthukathā* refers to a lady, who being anxious to devote herself to some Vrata without being disturbed by her gay husband, paid him some money out of her own Strīdhana, so that he may get his pleasure elsewhere (I, 15). Vratas therefore were quite common even before the beginning of the Christian era. The reorganisers of the Pauranik religion increased their number, spread them evenly over the whole year and invested thein with a moral fervour by associating a number of ethical and edifying stories with them. Hinduism, as it is known to and practised by the masses today, is not the Hinduism of the Śrutis or Sınṛitis, but the Hinduism of the Purāṇas, and women have been its most devoted followers and patrons. Most of the women in society at this time were uneducated and therefore incapable of understanding or appreciating subtle intellectual arguments like those advanced by the Vedānta school. The new religion, however, mostly relied on an appeal to faith and devotion. It therefore appealed to women immensely. Being certain that the sections of society, which were its devoted followers, had an inexhaustible fund of credulity, the writers of Purāṇas, did not take much care to offer a reasonable or rational explanation in every case. Very often virtues were so much exaggerated that they assumed the garb of vice. Vices were sometimes condoned because they were associated with some heroes or demi-gods. Hindu women, who went on performing the Vratas and listening to the stories contained in the Purāṇas, became by temper and training very creduluous and devotional. Most of them became strangers to rationalism based upon discriminative reason under the influence of the new religion. The same, however, was the case with men at this time, if perhaps to a slightly less extent. It however cannot be denied that the continuance of the old religious vein, moral fervour and spiritual tradition is largely due to the zeal, sincerity and devotion of women. Those very women, whom religion had once regarded as outcastes, eventually enabled it to tide over most difficult times.

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² अबकजनियो च बहु च बहुविधं च खुदं च निलठियं मंग्लं करोति ।

Buddhism and Jainism

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Let us now see what place and position was assigned to women in Buddhism and Jainism. Both these were ascetic religions, and they have not devoted much attention to the duties and ideals of lay women. The founders and leaders of both these movements shared the indifference to, or contempt of women, which is almost universal among the advocates of the ascetic ideal. The Buddha was reluctant to admit women to his Church, and the Digambara Jains hold that women can never get salvation except by first being reborn as men. It may be added here that Buddhism did not subscribe to this dogma.

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Owing to the pressing entreaties of his foster mother, the Buddha eventually decided with great reluctance to admit nuns into his Church. Mahāvīra is not known to have raised any objection in the matter. But both Buddhism and Jainism placed nuns under a more rigorous discipline than monks. Some of the restrictions placed upon the nuns were no doubt reasonable ones ; thus it was laid down that they should not stay alone without the protection of monks ;

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that they should avoid the company of men of doubtful character; that only monks of unquestioned purity and integrity should be allowed to preach before nuns; that they should always live together in groups of twos and threes, etc. Some other rules, however, betray a lack of confidence in the character and judgment of women. Thus the admission of a new nun was to be sanctioned by a joint meeting of the monks and nuns; new monks, however, could be admitted without consulting the nuns at all. Nuns were to go out to beg only when led by an experienced matron. The climax is, however, reached by the rule which lays down that a nun, though 100 years old, must stand in reverence before a monk, though he may have been just initiated in the Church. The reader will not now be surprised to learn that a nun could never preach before a congregation of monks, though the selected ones among the latter could preach before a congregation of nuns¹. It may be here added that early Christian Fathers shared similar views; they held that it was contrary to nature that women should be allowed to preach. The Council of Laodicea closed the doors of the preaching career to women in 365 a. d., and not all the feminist agitation has succeeded even now (1938 a. d.), in getting them reopened for them. Islam permits women to read the Koran, but not to preach from it².

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¹ *Vinaya*, Chullavagga, X, i, 4; *Mūlāchāra* of Vaṭṭakera, pp. 177-97.

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² J. L. Davies, *A Short History*, p. 238.

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The above rules betray that inherent air of superiority, which man usually finds it difficult to renounce with reference to women. Not all of them were, however, followed in practice; thus the theory that nuns could under no circumstances preach to monks did not stand in the way of Rājīmatī, the wife of Neminātha, in delivering a stirring sermon to her brother-in-law Rathanemi, when the latter had lost self-control under the influence of tempting circumstances (*Uttrādhyayanasūtra*, No. 22).

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In spite of some discriminative rules, referred to above, the permission that was given to women to join the Church by Jainism and Buddhism raised a new and attractive prospect before them. In Brahmanical religion also there were some nuns like Sulabhā and Gārgī Vāchaknavī; their number, however, seems to have been much larger in Buddhist and Jain circles. Buddhism declared that womanhood was no bar to salvation¹, and Śvetāmbara Jains concurred with the view. Marriage was not necessary for women; nay, it was a fetter which women were advised to avoid. They were therefore urged to become nuns without entering into matrimony. Among the nuns of the *Therīgāthā* the majority consists of women, who had renounced the world during their maidenhood. The career of preaching and evangelising that was thus opened before women by Jainism and Buddhism attracted a large number of talented ladies, who distinguished themselves as teachers and preachers. We find rich heiresses, refusing tempting marriage offers and joining the preaching army of the new reli-

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¹ > इत्थिभावो नो किं कयिरा चित्तम्हि सुसमाहिते ।

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ञानम्हि वत्तमानम्हि सम्माधम्मं विपस्सतो ॥ *Therīgāthā*, 61.

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gions. Such, for instance, was the case of Guttā, Anopamā and Sumedhā, who eventually became very famous preachers (*Therīgāthā*, 54, 56, 73). Jayantī, a daughter of king Sahasrānīka of Kauśāmbī, doffed her royal robe and became a devout nun, the moment her questions about the nature of the individual soul, the ideal of life, etc., were satisfactorily answered by Mahāvīra. Some ladies like Abhirūpā Nandā and Sumaṅgalā no doubt joined the Church as a welcome escape from household tyranny, but their number does not seem to have been large.

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When discipline became slack and unworthy persons began to be admitted into monasteries and nunneries, the tone of moral life deteriorated. It hastened the process of the downfall of Buddhism. Later Hinduism took a lesson from what it saw in Buddhist monasteries and nunneries and declared women to be ineligible for renunciation (Saṁnyāsa). It maintained that not renunciation but due discharge of family responsibilities was the most sacred duty of women¹. Nuns therefore have disappeared from Hinduism during the last 1500 years.

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¹ स्त्रियाः श्रुतौ वा शास्त्रे वा प्रव्रज्या न विधीयते । प्रजा हि तस्याः स्वो धर्मो सवर्णादिति धारणा ॥ Yama in *SCV.*, p. 596.

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The reader has already noted the main religious disabilities of women. In the modern feminist movement in India, we hardly notice any effort made to get them redressed. This is natural. When men themselves have given up Vedic sacrifices, women naturally feel no inclination to agitate for the right to perform them. The Aryasamaj, which has revived these sacrifices, has extended the right to perform them to women as well. In the modern materialistic world, the average woman feels no grievance for being deprived of the right to become a nun. She looks with a contemptuous smile on a dogma, which would declare that she is ineligible for spiritual salvation because of her sex. *Upanayana* has become a meaningless formality even in the case of boys; women naturally feel that they have nothing to gain by becoming re-eligible for it. It is true that the religious disenfranchisement that resulted from the ineligibility for *upanayana* produced a disastrous consequence upon the general status of women in society; but women have realised that improvement in this direction in modern days depends mainly upon the spread of education and the acquisition of economic rights and independence. They therefore naturally feel no inclination for initiating an agitation for the restoration of their old religious rights and privileges.

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It would be, however, in the interest of Hindu society if it remains constantly alive to the full implications of the Vedic theory that the husband and the wife are equal and necessary partners in divine worship. The principle implies that men and women have equal rights and responsibilities in matters temporal as well. Since the spiritual disenfranchisement of women, men have become accustomed to regard them as their inferiors in all the spheres of life. This outlook must disappear. We must remember that women have done greater service to religion than men by preserving the old religious tradition, moral fervour and spiritual vein in Hindu society. These constitute priceless heritage, and men ought to be grateful to women for preserving it. If an effort is made to spread a rational knowledge of the fundamental principles of Hinduism among women, they would undoubtedly become much better representatives of our culture and religion than what men are to day.

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