Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c13.46

c13.46

**Women and Education.** Women were not denied education. The Vārttika on iv, 1, 48 makes this quite clear. Women teachers, not their wives, are called *Upādhyāyī* or *Upādhyāyā*, *Āchāryā*. Bhattojidīkshita¹ explains these terms to mean ladies who are themselves teachers, while the *Bālamonoramā* quotes an interesting old verse to show that in earlier times there were women who were well versed in Vedic literature and were called *Brahmavādinīs*.² Women-students of Vedic Śākhās are referred to by Pāṇini [iv, 1, 63]. Thus *Kaṭhī* means the female student of the Kaṭha *Śākhā*; *Bahvṛichī* means the student who studies many hymns, i.e. the Rigveda [*Bālamonoramā* and *Kāśikā*]. Women seem also to have been admitted to military training, as indicated by the formation, *Śāktikī*, mentioned by Patañjali [iv, 1, 15 (6)], which means a female spear-bearer, and in this connection we may indeed refer to the Amazonian bodyguard of armed women which Megasthenes noticed in the palace of the emperor, Chandragupta Maurya.