The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c6.40

c6.40

When the reaction against the Vedic sacrificial religion gave a stimulus to philosophical speculations at about 800 B. C., lady scholars did not lag behind in taking an active interest in the new movement. Yājñavalkya's wife Maitreyī belonged to this class. She was more interested in finding out the way to immortality than in setting new fashions in dress and ornaments¹. In the philosophical tournament held under the auspices of king Janaka of Videha, the subtlest philosophical questions were initiated for discussion by the lady philosopher Gārgī, who had the honour to be the spokesman of the distinguished philosophers at the court. She launched her attack on Yājñavalkya, the newly arrived philosopher, with an admirable coolness and confidence. 'Just as an experienced archer,' says she, 'would get ready to attack his enemy with two piercing arrows kept at hand, so I assail you with two test questions. Answer them if you can.' The topics of her enquiry were so abstruse and esoteric in character, that Yājñavalkya declined to discuss them in public. The searching cross-examination of Yājñavalkya by Gārgī shows that she was a dialectician and philosopher of a high order (*Br. Up.*, III, 6 and 8). Ātreyī was another lady student of Vedānta; she was reading under the sages Vālmīki and Agastya. Some of these lady philosophers used to remain unmarried throughout the life in order to carry on their spiritual experiments unhampered. This tradition was continued later in the Buddhist and Jain circles as well. Among the Buddhist nuns, whose songs are included in the *Therīgāthā*, the majority consists of maidens, who, though born with a silver spoon, had denied to themselves the pleasures of matrimony in order to realise the bliss of salvation (*nirvāṇa*). The Jain tradition has preserved the memory of Jayantī, a daughter of king Sahasrānīka of Kauśāmbī, who remained unmarried out of her love for religion and philosophy. When Mahāvīra first visited Kauśāmbī, she discussed with him several abstruse metaphysical questions and eventually became a nun¹.