On Women

Women's Studies is an emerging area in humanities and social sciences. It is an interdisciplinary course that focuses on the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society.

However, it is premised on the notion of gender asymmetry. When enlarged upon it simply means that women are always at the periphery, suffer from inequalities and occupied a subservient position in relation to man.

There is no argument in that notion as it is amply borne out by newspaper and television reportings of,particularly in India, dowry deaths, honour killings,amniocentesis , rape and so on.

But we must not lose sight of the fact that women are life-givers.Women not only give birth;but also provide nourishment to the newborns. And about India whatever you rightly say , the opposite is also true.

Today I want to paint a different picture of women's status in ancient India. And it is bound to 'shake us aware like a blow on the skull'.

Here is Gargi- a woman scholar of vedic India.She is in 'arguing combat' with formidable Yajnavalkya.She challenges Yajnavalkya in front of the learned Brahmins to answer her questions. She says:'If he (Yajnavalkya) is able to answer those questions of mine,then none of you can ever defeat him in expounding the nature of God'. How bold she is! And her intellectual prowess! She is convinced her questions are the most insightful. And mind the rhetoric in which her questions are couched:' Yajanvalkya, I have two questions for you.Like the ruler of Videha or kashi , coming from a heroic line, who strings his unstrung bow, takes in hand two penetrating arrows and approaches the enemy, so do I approach you with two questions , which you must answer.'

Maitreyi,Yajnavalkya's wife raised profoundly philosophical question:' shall I achieve immortality if the whole earth, full of wealth were to belong to me'?When Yajnavalkya answered in the negative, she remarked:'What shall I do with that by which I do not become immortal'?

Women depicted in epics,classical tales and in recorded history, do not always conform to the tender and peace-loving imagae that is often assigend to women.

Draupadi speaks to a reluctant Yudhistra with an exhortation to fight:'For a woman to advise a man like you/is almost an insult. Yet my deep troubles compel me to overstep the limit of womanly conduct/make me speak up'.

To be continued...