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The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c12.s1: Buddhism and Jainism

The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c12.s1

Language
English

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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