The women of the Vedas

Speaking for the first time to someone on the phone can be a little disconcerting; speaking to a swamini, a female ascetic, and a Vedantin – scholar of the Vedas, even more so. But speaking to Atmaprajnananda Saraswati is surprisingly easy. There's nothing preachy about her or other-worldly; we speak as she cooks lunch; and she confesses that she goes herself to buy vegetables. An MBA with a high profile career in banking before she embraced the spiritual life, the resident of Bhubaneswar says she still files her own income tax returns and drafts her legal letters herself, much to the consternation of her CA.

"There is no hierarchy between the genders in the vedic corpus. It is the smritis that bring in this distinction – but they came much later. Clearly, there was male chauvinism at work, an insecurity about women," says Saraswati, the author of Rasikas of the Rigveda, on the 27 women seer-poets mentioned in the founding text of Hinduism, which is also the subject of a session she'll be a part of at ZeeJLF.

Saraswati's argument may sound surprising given how misogyny continues to be hardwired into Hindu customs and practices – think dowry, the ban on daughters lighting their fathers' pyres, on the entry of women in some temples, etc. But 62-year-old swamini should know – she's an MA and a PhD in Sanskrit, has put in years studying the Vedanta philosophy and Panini's grammar in the gurukul of her teacher Dayananda Saraswati, and also runs the Arsha Vidya Vikas Kendra, a teaching and research centre for Vendantas and Sanskrit, in Bhubaneshwar and has written three books on the Vedas.

That there were women among the 400 sages-composers of the Vedas is not unknown to scholars, however little it may be known commonly. But what Saraswati manages to reveal, parting the obscure depths of an ancient language and a hoary past, is a fascinating picture of self-possessed women who wouldn't have been out of place today. Ghosa Kaksivati, for instance, was struck by leprosy and remained unmarried for 60 years, but then worshipped the celestial Asvini twins who blessed her with youth, married life and children! Then there's Yami, Yama's twin sister, who falls in love with him. "There are many hymns with erotic elements. Yami tells Yama, 'Come and make love to me' to which Yama replies, 'Go and find some others to lay your arms on'," says Saraswati.

Besides her knowledge of the Vedas, Saraswati also brings in acute sociological insights. For instance, here's her take on the thread ceremony, or upanayam, a ceremony centred around boys in many communities. "The actual import of upanayanam is to lead the child to the teacher for Vedic studes. In time, this essential practice became a mere ritual. Upanayanam ceremonies were no more being held for females, because child-marriage became the convention, so that the girl-child's fertility period is not wasted. The cognitive deprivation gradually brought down the social status of women at par with shudras."