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Hindu women in vedic society
by MulaiAzhagi Wed Jul 04, 2012 9:39 pm
Shvetaketu is the Upanishadic young man, the son of sage Uddalaka, the grandson of sage Aruni and he represents the quintessential seeker of knowledge. The travails of Svetaketu lead him from ignorance to knowledge of the self and truth. In the pre-patriarchal society of our Vedic times, women were mistresses of their own sexuality. Women were considered as extremely valuable because only through them, could a man father a child repay his debt to his ancestors, and keep rotating the cycle of rebirths.(Basis for Karma or the principle of Karmic theory?)
It is Shvetaketu who is believed to be the fountain-head of patriarchy in India. Before he introduced the law of marriage women had full sexual freedom. In fact a woman could go to any man and a man who refused her was deemed a eunuch. This freedom was allowed, because child birth was considered as of prime importance to the society. But Shvetaketu insisted on fidelity from women so that all children knew who their biological fathers were. If the husband was sterile or impotent, the wife could go to another man, with the permission of her husband or in his absence due to death, with the permission of his family.
In a typical Kerala Tamil Brahmin marriage the twenty-fifth ritual, the mantra says “a woman is first given in marriage to the romantic God, Chandra, then to the highly sensual Gandharva, named Vishwavasu, then to the fire-god Agni, who cleanses and purifies all things and finally to her human husband. But why this explanation and restriction? This effectively exhausted the four men quota in a woman's life. And this was an attempt by the then Hindu society after Shvetaketu, to prevent Hindu women from remarrying. ~ Jaya ~ Devdutt Pattanaik.
http://www.dkagencies.com/doc/from/1063/to/1123/bkId/DKA2521716276321143457219708771/details.html
===> Courtesy of VP Saar.
It is Shvetaketu who is believed to be the fountain-head of patriarchy in India. Before he introduced the law of marriage women had full sexual freedom. In fact a woman could go to any man and a man who refused her was deemed a eunuch. This freedom was allowed, because child birth was considered as of prime importance to the society. But Shvetaketu insisted on fidelity from women so that all children knew who their biological fathers were. If the husband was sterile or impotent, the wife could go to another man, with the permission of her husband or in his absence due to death, with the permission of his family.
In a typical Kerala Tamil Brahmin marriage the twenty-fifth ritual, the mantra says “a woman is first given in marriage to the romantic God, Chandra, then to the highly sensual Gandharva, named Vishwavasu, then to the fire-god Agni, who cleanses and purifies all things and finally to her human husband. But why this explanation and restriction? This effectively exhausted the four men quota in a woman's life. And this was an attempt by the then Hindu society after Shvetaketu, to prevent Hindu women from remarrying. ~ Jaya ~ Devdutt Pattanaik.
http://www.dkagencies.com/doc/from/1063/to/1123/bkId/DKA2521716276321143457219708771/details.html
===> Courtesy of VP Saar.
MulaiAzhagi- Posts : 1254
Join date : 2011-12-20
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