The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c6.39

c6.39

Brahmavādinīs used to aim at a very high excellence in scholarship. Down to about the 4th century B. C. Vedic and philosophical studies attracted the main attention of society. We therefore find ladies also naturally cultivating these subjects with great devotion and enthusiasm. Besides studying the Vedas, many of them used to specialise in Pūrvamīmānsā, which discussed the diverse problems connected with Vedic sacrifices. This science is a very dry and difficult one, perhaps even more abstruse than mathematics; but still a very large number of ladies used to take deep interest in it. A theologian named Kāśakṛitsna had composed a work on Mīmānsā called Kāśakṛitsnī; lady scholars, who used to specialise in it, were designated as Kāśakṛitsnās (*Mahābhāshya*, IV, 1, 14; 3, 155). If lady scholars in such a technical branch of study were so numerous as to necessitate the coining of a special term to designate them, is it not reasonable to conclude that the number of women, who used to receive general cultural education, must have been fairly large?