Power Women: A Journey into Hindu Mythology, Folklore and History

1

Power and the Indian Woman

Bhikkunis at a Buddhist monastery in Myanmar—diagrammatic representation

Lopamudra, princess of Vidarbha and wife of the venerable sage Agastya, gets fed up of her husband’s austere lifestyle. She sets out to seduce the saintly soul. When the man finally shows interest in a romantic liaison, Lopamudra coolly tells him that before he can have his way with her, he must provide her all the wealth and comforts she had enjoyed in her father’s kingdom. Poor Agastya goes out to make his fortune and finally obtains the necessary wealth from the kingdom of the asura Ilvala, whose brother Vatapi he eats and digests. (Once upon a time, everyone ate meat, and Brahminism and vegetarianism did not always go together. Whether asura meat equalled human meat is a moot point.)

Once Lopamudra attains the desired wealth, she comes up with a fresh demand. She tells her husband that if he desires offspring, he must learn to satisfy her first. The spunky woman has contributed a hymn to the Rig Veda to this effect. (The Rigvedic hymns constitute some of the world’s oldest surviving poetry.) The ascetic couple soon has a poet-scholar son, Drdhasyu, who emerges from his mother’s womb reciting the Vedas.

Agastya is renowned for swallowing the ocean and for halting the growth of the Vindhya Mountain range. However, in wisdom and asceticism, Lopamudra is his equal. She is even credited with popularising the Lalitha sahasranamam—the 1,000 names of Goddess Shakti. Yet Lopamudra is little known, while Agastya is a household name. One cannot blame the sacred texts for this. The transmitters of history and literature must be held responsible.

In the Mahabharata, a dying Bhishma tells Yudhishtira the story of Sulabha, a yogini who mesmerises, overpowers and humbles King Janaka who had been claiming he had attained moksha while living the life of a householder and ruling the kingdom of Mithila. Sulabha calls on the king and undertakes a prolonged intellectual debate at the end of which the king is speechless. Emphasising the powerlessness of the king, Sulabha declares, ‘Even a chakravarti ruling the world lives in only one town; in that one town, he lives in only one palace; in that one palace, he sleeps in only one room; in that one room, he occupies only one bed; and even then, half of that bed is claimed by his wife. Thus, a king has very little he can call his own though he thinks he owns everything.’

Sulabha’s discourse covers a wide range of topics, including the meaning of moksha and renunciation, anger management, kama, yoga and even the crossing of the caste barrier. Speaking of herself, Sulabha says she is the daughter of King Pradhana, and she chose the path of renunciation as she did not find any man worthy of her. She lives and travels alone. Drawing attention to the limits of renunciation, Sulabha points out the supreme irony that a person who renounces the world has to depend on society for his daily needs. ‘In this world the renouncers are sustained by the households. Renouncing family, the renouncers depend for their sustenance upon families nevertheless. It is from there that they arise, and it is from them that they receive recognition and respect’ (Badrinath 2006, 135).

Gargi, the scholar-philosopher, debates with the renowned Sage Yajnavalkya in Janaka’s court after several learned male intellectuals accept defeat. Amazingly, the ancient Hindu texts visualised such scenarios where women surpassed men in knowledge and wit. Moreover, Indian history has real instances of women striking out on their own. Avvaiyar in Sangam-era Tamil country and Mirabai in 16th-century Mewar are two shining examples.

Through the Patriarchal Lens

Women have been portrayed in a variety of shades and colours in history, literature, poetry, mythology, folklore and oral traditions. They are sometimes invisible, often inaudible and mostly undervalued, but their presence is undeniable. In some instances, religious authorities have conspired to edit women out of the dominant narrative, even when the founders of these religions had no such intention.

It is well known that Jesus welcomed Mary Magdalene (sometimes described as a fallen woman) into his circle of disciples. He reacted to the moral policing of the mob by declaring, ‘Let him cast the first stone who has never sinned!’ (Stoning to death was a pre-Christian tradition.) Female disciples of Jesus named in the New Testament include Joanna, Salome, Susanna and Mary of Magdala. Nevertheless, many of us are under the impression that all of Christ’s disciples were male.

The book of Ruth, a crucial part of the Old Testament, supplies some of the core ideas encapsulated in the Christian marriage vows in use today. The words uttered by the widowed Ruth to her mother-in-law, Naomi, promising to stay with her until the very end, have had a lasting appeal.

Ruth, a Moabite woman, married Mahlon, the son of a Judaean couple living in Moab. When Mahlon died, both Ruth and Naomi became destitute. Naomi then decided to return to Judaea to face an uncertain future. Resolving to accompany her mother-in-law, Ruth declared, ‘Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me’ (Old Testament, Book of Ruth 1:16).

This theme underwent many variations and produced a refined version: ‘For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.’ A sacred vow emerged from the mouth of an unlettered woman and remains in vogue more than 2,000 years later.

Not everything in religious texts is compatible with modern values though. The Bible declares that a virgin woman is an asset in her father’s hands, while a non-virgin is a liability. Wives, concubines, slaves and children are the property of the dominant male, and he can dispense with them as he pleases. The Mahabharata tells us how King Yayati, the illustrious ancestor of the Pandavas and Kauravas, offered his beautiful daughter Madhavi to Sage Galava to be bartered to various kings in exchange for 800 horses of a rare breed. (Horse trading was evidently a time-honoured practice.)

In Islamic tradition, two remarkably strong women, Khadijah and Ayesha, both wives of Prophet Mohammed, are conveniently glossed over by latter-day clerics, and their achievements are brushed under the carpet. Khadijah was a wealthy businesswoman who traded on her own account and hired the future Prophet to work for her. At the age of forty, she was confident enough to propose marriage to a handsome, twenty-five-year-old Mohammed. Her proposal was accepted. That she was twice widowed and that Mohammed had not been married before did not matter at all. Khadijah remained an advisor, a confidante and a beloved of Mohammed until she breathed her last.

Ayesha, whom the Prophet married when she was a minor, grew up to be his favourite and had a powerful influence over him until his death. Many traditions in the Hadith are attributed to her. After Mohammed’s passing, she did not lapse into silence but took an active part in the ensuing power struggle. She delivered speeches at the mosque in Medina and rode to Basra on camelback to encourage her soldiers in what came to be known as the Battle of the Camel. Following her defeat at the hands of Ali, the Prophet’s son-in-law, Ayesha wisely quit politics.

Khadijah and Ayesha were both extraordinary women. But all we hear about them today is that they were the wives of the Prophet.

Panchakanyas and Rishikas

The female protagonists in Hindu mythology and folklore have been limited and circumscribed by the stereotypes imposed by society from time to time. The fact that there are multiple versions of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and other religious texts adds to the confusion. Further distortions happen because we tend to use male-oriented paradigms to view them.

Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara, Mandodaritatha

Panchakanya smaren nityam mahapataka nashinih

(Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari—

One should forever remember the five virgins who are the destroyers of great sins.)

This ancient verse calls upon believers to remember these five damsels every day at dawn. None of these women measure up to the ‘ideal woman’ stereotype, yet they are mysteriously acclaimed as the ‘five virgins’. All of them were wives and mothers, and all except Mandodari had more than one partner. Ahalya had an extramarital affair with Lord Indra. Draupadi had five husbands. Kunti had four sons from four different gods. Tara was the consort of Vali as well as his brother Sugriva, having changed partners no less than three times. Mandodari, the virtuous widow of Ravana, is described in some accounts as having married his brother Vibhishana when the Lankan war ended, though the Valmiki Ramayana does not contain such a reference. Some sources count Sita among the panchakanyas and exclude Kunti, but the adulterous Ahalya is invariably named first.

Lopamudra is by no means the only woman who contributed hymns to the Rig Veda. There were others such as Ghosha and Maitreyi. Two hymns written in praise of the Ashwini Kumars and their curative abilities are attributed to Ghosha. They supposedly cured her of leprosy and restored her youth and beauty, enabling her to dream of marriage and motherhood. Maitreyi, one of the two wives of Sage Yajnavalkya, famously debated Vedic philosophy with her scholarly husband. An intellectual symbol of ancient India, she finds mention in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and other texts. About ten hymns in the Rig Veda are attributed to her.

The intellectual challenge to Yajnavalkya mounted by Gargi Vachaknavi at the court of King Janaka and the rishi’s elaborate philosophical discourse with his wife Maitreyi on the eve of his departure to take up vanvas throw light on the high level of educational attainment of at least a few women in ancient India.

However, of the 1,028 Rigvedic hymns, hardly 15 are attributed to women. Men have always had the upper hand. Priesthood was a masculine domain as there is no mention in any ancient text of the existence of even a single female priest. On the other hand, Hindu classical texts do contain multiple references to female teachers.

The Brahmavadinis were a class of women who devoted their lives to meditation, study and spiritual pursuits. They were female scholars who studied and expounded the Vedas or wrote Vedic hymns. Brahmavadini literally means ‘the woman who speaks about Brahman’. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad refers to Maitreyi as a ‘brahmavadini’. Katyayana in his Rig Veda Sarvanukramani lists twenty-seven rishikas and refers to them as brahmavadinis. His list includes Lopamudra, Maitreyi, Viswavara, Apala and Ghosha.

The Madhava Samhita, a commentary on the Parasara Smriti, informs us that ‘she who studies the Vedas after upanayana and then gets married is a brahmavadini; she who gets married immediately after upanayana and then studies the Vedas is a sadyovadhu. This indicates that girls were entitled to the sacred thread ceremony and Gayatri-upadesa as well as Vedic studies.

The Buddhist sangha or community of monks had female bhikkunis from inception. A reluctant Buddha was persuaded by his favourite disciple, Ananda, to admit women into the sangha after his royal foster mother, Mahapajapati Gotami, came to him with such a request. She had walked long distances through heat and dust to find him. The Buddha initially refused her request, but Ananda vociferously and masterfully pleaded her case.

When the Buddha finally relented, he imposed eight solid restrictions. One of them was that a woman who wished to join the sangha must obtain the permission of her parents if she was unmarried and that of her husband if she was married. Another was that a theri must defer to a thera, notwithstanding her seniority, age or merit. Any monk could rebuke any nun, but no theri could rebuke a thera. Buddha reportedly remarked that with women joining the sangha, the doctrine would last only 500 years instead of a 1,000 years (counting from the 6th century BCE). He was wrong. It still endures.

The Therigatha constitutes of some of the earliest surviving texts composed by women anywhere in the world. Compiled over five centuries and finally written down around 80 BCE in Pali language, it is considered the world’s first anthology of poems written by and about women. Some of the poems may have been composed while the Buddha was alive for the women often sing of their meeting with him. Recurring themes in this anthology include the impermanence of the body, the suppression of desire, the cycle of rebirths and the ideal of nibbana or nirvana.

A bhikkuni named Mutta sings of liberation:

So freed! So thoroughly freed am I!

from three crooked things set free:

from mortar, pestle,

and crooked old husband.

(translated from Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu 1994)

Mutta means ‘freed’. Born to a poor Brahmana in Kosala, Mutta was given in marriage to a hunchbacked Brahmana. But she succeeded in persuading him to release her from the marriage bond and consent to her joining the sangha. (Buddha had set tough conditions, but women even in those days were ingenious.)

Another verse by an unnamed nun speaks of the suppression of desire, an oft-repeated theme in the Therigatha:

Sleep, little theri, sleep comfortably,

wrapped in the robe that you’ve made,

for your passion is stilled

like a pot of pickled greens

boiled dry.

(translated from Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu 1994)

Sumangalamata, mother of the monk Sumangala, sang:

A woman well set free! How free I am,

How wonderfully free, from kitchen drudgery.

Free from the harsh grip of hunger,

And from empty cooking pots.

(Tharu and Lalita 1991, 69, translation by Uma Chakravarti and Kumkum Roy)

The verses of the Therigatha show women equalling men in spiritual attainment. Daughters, wives, mothers, childless widows and women from all walks of life discuss everything from bride price to the price of a courtesan. The women rejoice at their new-found freedom—freedom from the control of husband and family, freedom from poverty and hunger, freedom from domestic drudgery and so on. The sangha was a refuge for women who wished to free themselves from domestic, religious and emotional bondage. Even Ambapalli, the famed courtesan of Vaishali, joined the ranks of the theris. As long as the sangha existed (it still exists), no woman—whether unmarried, married, abandoned, cast out or widowed—was destitute. Within the confines of the monastery, all women were single and, therefore, equal.

The Jain orders had female ascetics too, and that was over 2,500 years ago. Far south in the Tamil country, in the Sangam literature that appears to be pre-Aryan (suggested by scholars due to the virtual absence of references to Hindu mythology and Sanskrit words), it is noteworthy that 154 out of the 2,381 poems are attributed to women.

It was the Manusmriti (dated between the 2nd century BCE and the 3rd century CE) that forbade women to study the Vedas. The right to education was snatched away from the Indian woman as rigid patriarchy gained supremacy in the subcontinent.

2

Extraordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives

Nala abandons Damayanti in the forest

Ilearnt the Ramayana from my paternal grandmother at Thalassery, Kerala. Achamma was a master of the art of storytelling. My eyes would fill with tears when she described the poignant scenes