History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.387
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.387
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v2.c24.s1.387.1
It appears that in very ancient times the status of Indian women as to education was much higher than in medieval and modern times in India. Several women are stated to have been the composers of Vedic hymns; e.g. Ṛg. V. 28 is ascribed to Viśvavārā of the Atri family; Ṛg. VIII. 91 to Apālā of the same family and Ṛg. X. 39 to Ghoṣā Kākṣīvatī. The Bṛ. Up. II. 4. 1. shows that Maitreyī, one of the two wives of Yājñavalkya, the great philosopher of ancient India, was herself a very earnest seeker after true knowledge and she prayed to Yājñavalkya that he should impart to her such knowledge as would make her immortal.⁸⁹⁰ In the same Upaniṣad (III. 6 and 8) we find that among the several interlocutors in the court of Janaka, king of Videha, who propounded several questions for solution before Yājñavalkya, Gārgī Vācaknavī occupies a very prominent position. She pursued Yājñavalkya with subtle and searching questions till ultimately he was forced to warn her not to probe too much into the nature of the First Principle which was beyond mere human reason and logical questioning or otherwise she might die by the fall of her head. Then she desisted, but her unquenchable thirst for philosophical knowledge again swelled up and she put two questions to Yājñavalkya hoping to confound him. In the same Up. (Bṛ. Up. VI. 4. 17) there is a rite prescribed⁸⁹¹ for one who desires to have a learned daughter.
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As in the very preceding sentence a prescription is given for one desirous of having a son who would master the three Vedas, it naturally follows that the learning of the daughter must refer to the same topic. But Śaṁkara, in whose day women were debarred from learning the Vedas, could not but explain the word 'paṇḍitā' as referring to proficiency in domestic work. It has been shown above (p. 294) that upanayana and veda study were allowed to women by Hārīta. In the daily ṛṣitarpaṇa (Āśv. gṛ. III. 4) among a host of sages water is offered to three women as teachers viz. Gārgī Vācaknavī, Vaḍavā Prātitheyī and Sulabhā Maitreyī. The very fact that the Kāśikā on Pāṇini IV. 1. 59 and III. 3. 21 teaches the formation of ācāryā and upādhyāyā as meaning a woman who is herself a teacher (and not merely the wife of a teacher) establishes that the ancient grammarians were familiar with women teachers. Patañjali teaches⁸⁹² how and why a brāhmaṇa woman is called Āpiśalā (one who studies the grammar of Āpiśali) and Kāśakṛtsnā (one who studies the mīmāṁsā work of Kāśakṛtsna). He also states the formation of the appellation 'Audameghāḥ' (meaning the pupils of a woman teacher called Audameghyā). Gobhila⁸⁹³ gṛ. II. 1.
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19-20 prescribes that when the bride pushes forward with her foot a mat the bridegroom should make her repeat the mantra 'may the way which my husband goes by be also assigned to me' and that if she does not repeat this mantra (through bashfulness &c.) he should repeat it substituting the words 'to her' for 'to me'. In the Kāṭhaka⁸⁹⁴ gṛ. 25. 23 it is said that the Anuvāka beginning with 'sarasvati predam-ava' (of 21 verses) was to be recited both by the bride and the bridegroom according to some teachers. All this shows that women could recite Vedic mantras in the sūtra period. The Kāmasūtra of Vātsyāyana,⁸⁹⁵ a remarkable though in some places a filthy work, prescribes that women should study the Kāmasūtra and its subsidiary aṅgas (viz. the 64 kalās such as singing, dancing, painting &c.) before they attain youth (i. e. in their father's house) and after marriage with the husband's consent. In the 64 kalās enumerated in that work (I. 3. 16) are included prahelikās (riddles of words), pustakavācana (chanting from books), kāvyasamasyā-pūraṇa (composing a suitable portion of a verse to fit in with a portion given), knowledge of lexicons and metres &c. We read in the epics and the dramas like the Śākuntala of women writing messages to their lovers. In the Mālatīmādhava Bhavabhūti tells his readers that the fathers of the hero and the heroine studied in their youth together with Kāmandakī at the feet of the same master.
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From anthologies like Rājaśekhara's Sūktimuktāvali we learn that there were poetesses like Vijjā, Sītā &c. All these facts tend to indicate that literary attainments among women were not totally unheard of in ancient India.