The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c6.54

c6.54

During the first millennium of the Christian era there undoubtedly flourished in Hindu society a few famous lady scholars and poetesses. Among the authors from whose works selections have been made by Hāla in his anthology of Mahārāshṭrī poems (*Gāthā-saptaśatī*), there are seven poetesses, their names being Revā, Rohā, Mādhavī, Anulakshmī, Pahaī, Vaddhavahī, and Śaśiprabhā. Some Sanskrit anthologies also have preserved the memory of a few distinguished poetesses, who appear to have composed poetry of a really high order. Śīlabhaṭṭārikā, we learn, was famous for her easy and graceful style, noted for a harmonious synthesis of sense and sound. Devī was a well-known poetess of Gujarat, who continued to enchant her readers on earth even when she had herself gone to heaven. Vijayāṅkā’s fame was second only to that of Kālidāsa. She seems to have attained a really high position among Sanskrit writers, for a distinguished critic and poet like Rājaśekhara compares her to goddess Sarasvatī herself. Nature was not very kind to this gifted lady because it had chosen to give her a blue-black complexion. Rājaśekhara boldly declares that even masters of Sanskrit verse were clearly in the wrong when they declared that Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning, was all fair in complexion. For in that case, how could poetess Vijayāṅkā, the incarnation of that goddess, have had a complexion resembling the blue, rather than the white lotus¹? This is of course all a play of poetic fancy, but it proves beyond all doubt that Vijayāṅkā was a celebrated poetess. Rājaśekhara’s wife, a Kshatriya by caste, was a good literary critic and poetess. The recently published drama *Kaumudīmahotsava*, whose central theme is an important political revolution at Paṭalīputra, has proceeded from the pen of a lady courtier; it shows that cultured ladies used to take a good deal of interest in the complications of contemporary history and politics. The umpire in the fateful controversy between Śaṅkarāchārya and Maṇḍanamiśra was the latter's wife¹. Obviously she must have been very well grounded in literature, philosophy and theology; otherwise she would not have been accepted as the sole judge in this momentous controversy. Some women were attracted by medical studies also; the majority of these, like our lady doctors to-day, specialised in women's diseases. A treatise on this subject written by a lady doctor, whose name appears as Rūsā in the Arabic garb, was translated in the eighth century a. d. into Arabic at the order of Khalifa Harun². Obviously the most authoritative works on the subject seem to have been written by lady doctors.