WOMEN AND VEDAS - PART 2

The first part with the same title published a few days ago, elicited some strong views against the ladies learning Veda and chanting them. It also elicited some comments that were bordering on telling that there is no use in upsetting the apple cart.  There was a comment which was lamenting the blog itself on the degradation of moral values due to 'Kali Yuga'.

Most of the people who commented on the first part of the blog failed to notice that the Veda was taught to all irrespective of gender and the varna till the start of the Kaliyuga or possibly till the advent of Chengis Khan and Islamic plunder from the times of Mammud of Gazni and Mahmud of Ghori.  Let us not trivialise the issue by saying that it is trying to create social unrest by seeking to educate women in Veda and permit them to chant the same.  While a few comments with supportive evidence of growing tendencies of ladies learning Veda and chanting them were like a proverbial shower on a summer afternoon, though the majority of the comments to the blog were like not to upset the present social structure by demanding the learning of Veda by ladies.    

Gargi and Maitreyi were possibly lived in the Krutha Yuga or might have been in Thretha Yuga as both were contemporaries of sage Yagnavalkya who was the proponent of Sukla Yajur Veda.  Both these ladies were well versed in all aspects of Veda and they were able to qualify as Brahmavadinis.  The debate between Gargi and Yagnavalkya in the assembly of King Janaka narrated in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is an eye opener as to the level of her understanding of the spirit of Veda and what a self realized soul she was.  She was the daughter of sage Garga.  Maitreyi, on the other hand, was the second wife of sage Yagnavalkya and when he decided to renounce the family life to go to forest to meditate on finding the truth (vanaparastham), she refused the wealth he was planning to leave her with.  She asked him whether the wealth that he proposed to divide between her and Kathyayini the first wife, will bring her eternal happiness.  On hearing his negative reply, she asked him to impart the knowledge for eternal happiness.  The discussion on this subject again narrated in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is an indicator as to what level of Vedic knowledge the women of yore had and how they were able to discuss and debate on these matters with menfolk who had extensive learning and meditation on these.  Of the two, one was a wife married to a renowned sage and the other was the daughter of another renowned sage. Therefore, there is no gainsaying that women cannot learn Veda and chant the same. 

In the recent times of Adi Shankara in 5th BCE, when Adi Shankara went in search of Mandana Mishra in Mahishmathi, he asked some local women about his house. They told him that in a house where even parrots chant the Veda is the house of Mandana Mishra. Ubaya Bharathi, the wife of Mandana Mishra who Adi Shankara defeated in a debate, was full of knowledge on many things.  She told Adi Shankara that his defeat of her husband was only half the battle won as the husband and wife are one soul in two bodies. Adi Shankara had to defeat her in debate and then only and only then his condition of Mandana Mishra renouncing his family life could be contemplated.  The discussion between Ubaya Bharathi and Adi Shankara went on for days and finally she stumped him asking him some questions on intimate relationship between husband and wife.  She gracefully accepted Shankara's request for a period of holding the debate in abeyance for him to learn and revert.  Ultimately, Shankara returned with knowledge on that aspect of humankind and in the process won over Ubaya Bharathi.  Mandana Mishra had to renounce his family life and become a mendicant following Shankara. This explains that women in the times of Adi Shankara also were excelling in their knowledge of Veda.

Be that as it may, let us look at the present day.  When the imposition of ban on the ladies learning Veda and chanting had been in force for reasons spelt out in the earlier part, should the educated lot remain moot spectators in not allowing the ladies to start and continue the glorious tradition of learning Veda and chanting them?  The present day ladies are excelling themselves in almost all fields, be it medicine, management, space science, research, information technology, politics, administration etc.  They travel around the globe unaccompanied. Their contribution to nation building is something that cannot be dismissed cheaply.  In that background, with fewer and fewer male children opting to learn Veda and practicing it, is it not time to permit interested female children in their pre-pubescent days to start learning Veda.  Not all the male children from the Brahmin families opt for learning Veda. Even from the families of Vedic scholars, in most cases the children do not take up study of Veda. It is from a few families who send their children to the patashala to learn veda, and in most of the cases it is economic conditions of the parent that drive them to this decision.  Seldom the children are sent to the Veda patashalas out of reverence and interest in keeping the study of Veda alive.    

We, in general, lament the decreasing moral tendencies among the youth of the present generation and a few comments on the earlier part spelt out that the mothers are responsible for teaching the children the moral values.  In that background, we owe the society a moral compass and an anchor in the form of educated women, not just in today's many subjects alone, but in Veda and its various tenets. It is said that an educated woman is a treasure to the family and she will be a beacon for the next generation as well.  In that background also, it will be beneficial for the girls and women who are interested to learn the Veda and chant the same to join the patashala and learn Veda.  Practicing the same or taking up the work of a Vedic Scholar in the place of menfolk is to be left to the individual.

The male children of present day Vedic scholars are migrating to study other subjects than Veda with a very few children of them opt to join the patashalas to learn Veda. This is seen as the result of low income of the practicing Vedic scholars and the social status in which they are held as against the other 'highly educated' and 'gainfully employed' brahmins. Even getting a marriage proposal for these scholars of Veda is becoming more and more difficult as less and less women are coming forward to marry Vedic scholars.  Certain rituals imposed on the Brahmins cannot be done in the absence of wife and therefore, when Vedic scholars are finding it difficult to marry, those rituals are slowly going out of practice leading to some serious repercussions.  In that background also, it will be beneficial for the girl children to learn Veda. The patashalas run by Vedic scholars and the general population may do well in allowing the girls to attend the patashalas as in the case of normal school and start learning the Vedas.