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women and Hinduism

Hinduism, because of its extreme diversity

throughout the ages, has encompassed complex

systems of thought and social hierarchies, which

defy any simple generalizations. This overview

of the status and role of women in Hindu India,

and of the culture’s attitudes toward them, reflects

that variety. It should be born in mind that social

correlates of gender, such as CASTE, class, stage of

life, age, and family membership, are all variables

that significantly affect the position of women in

Hindu society, so that women in Hinduism dem-

onstrate significant differences in their lives.

It is the case that in prehistory everywhere

there were significantly more autonomy and sex-

ual freedom for women (and men) than in later

times. There are indications, certainly, that in

pre-Vedic times in India (before 1500 B.C.E.), such

freedom and autonomy existed among the pre-

ARYAN tribal people who inhabited every corner

of India. Tribal groups such as the Santals to this

day do not restrict women’s sexuality and action

in any way as their more staid counterparts in the

larger culture do. Ancient Tamil poetry, dated as

early as 300 B.C.E., shows women freely choosing

sexual partners before marriage and relying upon

love marriages rather than family arrangements.

Also, groups such as the Nayars show that matri-

liny and matrilocality, which must be associated

with more supportive lives for women, were

probably fairly common in the Indian, pre-Aryan

substratum that provides the cultural undergird-

ing for much of later Hinduism.

A pattern develops, visible in the Brahminical

texts, of women’s having roles in the early Vedic

culture (1500–800 B.C.E.) that began to be denied

them even in the late Vedic period. Some RISHIs,

for instance, were arguably women, and in the

White YAJUR VEDA there are chants that can be

performed only by a woman who knows Sanskrit.

Though Hindu tradition even up to the present

day understands that women were never allowed

to recite the VEDAS or even witness a Vedic ritual,

these examples indicate that this rule was not

strictly observed in early Vedic tradition.

When hierarchies of society begin to be created

in association with the creation of historical cities

worldwide (in India beginning around 800 B.C.E.),

such social developments generally result in the

restriction of the rights of women. So was it in

India, where women began to be subjugated more

and more to family and husband and began to lose

their role as independent actors. But as soon as the

early urban period had come to fruition, perhaps

W