Education in Ancient India c11.s1.14

c11.s1.14

Attainments of Lady Scholars :-The attainments of lady scholars, who remained unmarried for a longer time, were naturally wider and more varied. In the Vedic age, they used to acquire thorough mastery in the Vedic literature and even compose poems, some of which have been honoured by their inclusion in the sacred canon. When the Vedic lore and sacrifices became complex, a new branch of study, called *Mīmānsā*, came to be developed in their connection. Though this was a subject, drier than mathematics, we find lady scholars taking keen interest in it. Kāśakṛtsnin had composed a work on *Mīmānsā* called Kāśakṛtsnī after him ; lady students who used to specialise in it, were known as *Kāśakṛtsnā*.² If lady specialists in a technical science like *Mīmāṃsā* were so numerous as to necessitate the coining of a new special term to denote them, we can reasonably conclude that the number of women who used to receive general literary and cultural education must have been fairly large. When in the course of time the study of philosophy became popular in the Upanishadic age, women began to take keen interest in that subject also. Such was the case with Yājñavalkya’s wife Maitreyī; she was more interested in studying deeper problems of philosophy than in wearing costly jewels and apparels.¹ In the philosophical tournament held during the sacrificial session performed under the auspices of king Janaka, it is interesting to note that the subtlest philosophical question was asked by the lady philosopher Gārgī Vāchaknavī.² The question was so subtle and esoteric in character that Yājñavalkya refused to discuss it in public. The keen reasoning and subtle cross-examination of Yājñavalkya by Gārgī shows that she was a dialectician and philosopher of a high order. Ātreyī of the *Uttara-Rāma-charit* was another lady, who was studying Vedānta under Vālmiki and Agastya.³ Some lady scholars of the age like Sulabhā, Vaḍavā, Prāthiteyī, Maitreyī, and Gārgī seem to have made real contribution to the advancement of knowledge, for they enjoy the rare privilege of being included among the galaxy of distinguished scholars, to whom a daily tribute of gratitude was to be given by a grateful posterity at the time of the daily prayer (Brahmayajña).¹