THE BRAHMANICAL DISCOURSE on WOMEN in ANCIENT INDIA ( C I R C a 500 B C E - 300 C E )
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‘IDEALIZING MOTHERHOOD’: THE BRAHMANICAL DISCOURSE ON WOMEN IN ANCIENT INDIA ( c i r c a 500 b c e - 300 c e ) UJJAYINI RAY Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 1999 / b ib l V ■ {LONDON] \ UNIV. / ProQuest Number: 10672658 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10672658 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract ‘IDEALIZING MOTHERHOOD *: THE BRAHMANICAL DISCOURSE ON WOMEN IN ______________________ ANCIENT INDIA {circa 500 BCE-300 CE)_________________________ This is a study of the Brahmanical discourse on women in ancient India between 500 b c e and 300 CE. It specifically addresses the question of the representation of women in certain Brahmanical texts which were composed, compiled and written down during this period. The thesis attempts to move away from a previous focus on the ‘status of women’ in ancient ‘Hindu’ India and from an uncritical acceptance of Brahmanical texts as reflective of social reality. Instead, it argues that under certain historical circumstances Brahmanism evolved a particular discourse on women. This discourse, subsequently expressed in its texts, saw women in essentialist terms, as sexually insatiable and, therefore, sinful. At the same time, however, Brahmanism recognized that women had a vital role to play in the reproduction of its envisioned social order, particularly in the maintenance of caste and lineage purity and the family (all three being important pillars of the Brahmanical social order). Therefore, women had to be controlled. My reading of the Brahmanical texts suggests that the method of control evolved by Brahmanism to deal with this apparent dilemma was the classification of women according to their reproductive abilities, a classification which served to distinguish the normative from the ‘deviant’ woman. In this scheme, the mother was the procreatrix and as such was accorded the highest status. Woman as the mother thus became the primary normative categoiy. Furthermore, with motherhood came qualitative changes in a woman’s kin and sexual status. Woman as wife or daughter formed the secondary normative category. She enjoyed the status of a potential procreatrix, being yet to fulfil her primaiy biological function. As a wife and daughter, therefore, a woman held an ambiguous kin position. She was regarded as sexually dangerous, which led to an emphasis on the wife’s chastity and the daughter’s virginity. This thesis argues that since, according to Brahmanism, a woman was defined by her reproductive abilities, one who was not (or could not be) a mother was by definition ‘deviant’. This category included the widow, the woman ascetic and the vesya, women whose potential for procreation was not recognized socially. It has often been argued that Brahmanical texts objectify women and that a study of such texts perpetuates both the objectification of women and their portrayal as the ‘other’. Therefore, after discussing the Brahmanical discourse on women, the thesis addresses the question of the agency of women in ancient India. While not totally agreeing with the current ethnographic studies on the ‘subversive’ activities of women within the patriarchal order, in its concluding section, this thesis examines questions relating to women’s complicity with and resistance against Brahmanical norms and categorizations in ancient India. CONTENTS Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................................... v-vi List of editions and translations used ...................................................................................................................vii-x List of figures and maps ..............................................................................................................................................xi Introduction 1-9 Chapter 1\ ‘Paradigms lost’: problems of writing a history of ‘women’ in ancient India 10-33 1.1. The colonial discourse on Hindu women and the nationalist counter-rhetoric of a ‘golden age’ 1.2. From counter-rhetoric to historiographical paradigm: a critique of Altekar and his paradigm of histoiy 1.3. Beyond the ‘Altekarian paradigm ’: the beginning of ‘women’s histoiy ’ in India 1.4. Re-emergence of Western scholarship on Indian women: studies of the divine feminine principle and 'readers ’ on Hinduism 1.5. Feminist/gendered histoiy: a new beginning in Indian and Western academic discourse 1.6. Woman as the agent in the narrative Chapter 2: Contextualizing the evidence: the historical setting, Brahmanical thought, texts and women 34-65 2.1. The political, economic, religious and social conditions in north India, circa500 BCE-300 c e 2.2. The ‘re-invention’ o f Brahmanism and its textual manifestation 2.3. The texts in question 2.4. Brahmanical views on the sexual and dangerous nature of women 2.5. The Brahmanical classification of women according to their procreative abilities as a system of conti'ol 2.6. Disseminating the Brahmanical world view Chapter 3: The institutionalization of motherhood: the mother as a procreative, kin and asexual 66-95 3.1. The mother again 3.2. Putran dehi, ancestor worship, grhastha dharma and women’s role in reproduction 3.3. The eulogy of the mother 3.4. The kin and sexual status of the mother: integration into the conjugal lineage and the transformation o f sexuality 3.5. The institutionalization ofprocreation and the devaluation of the female role in reproductivity and nurturance Chapter 4: The wife and daughter: the secondary normative category as potentially procreative, kin yet non kin, sexual and dangerous 96-130 4.1. Traditional scholarship on the categoiy ‘wife’ 4.2. The terms for the wife and the creation of a dependent, reproductive categoiy. 4.3. The wife as a fieldfor reproduction. 4.4. The purity ofjati and kula and sexual accessibility of the wife 4.5. Thepativrata rhetoric 4.6. Duhitr or kanyd? The daughter as a potential mother 4.7. Menarche and the beginning o f reproduction: the desire for pubertal marriages 4.8. ‘The gift o f a virgin ’ and the ti'ansfer of reproductive rights 4.9. Paragdmini: the kinship position of the daughter Chapter 5: From a potential mother to non-mother: the transformation of the widow in ancient India 131-150 5.1. The widow and the ‘position of woman ’ in ancient India ’ 5.2. The widow as a potential procreatrix 5.3. From potential mother to a non-mother: transformation in the reproductive status of the widow 5.4. Celibacy or ritual death for the non-procreative widow: the problem of her sexuality and kin status Chapter 6: The social rejection of motherhood and the construction of the non-mother: the vesya and the parivrdjikd 151-180 6.1. The prostitute in ancient India 6.2. Monetaiy transaction or sexual polygamy: the definition of a vesya 6.3. The allocation of the public sphere to the vesyds 6.4. The vesya as a socially non-procreative categoiy 6.5. The non-kin status o f the vesya 6.6. The pravrajita or tapasi: classification of women ascetics 6.7. The lack of theological sanction for the independent, wandering woman renouncer 6.8. Reasons for their disqualification: celibacy and non-reproduction Chapter 7: Woman as object and subject: Brahmanical discourse and the question of the agency of women in ancient India 181-209 7.1. New ethno-histoiy: the 'experiences’ and ‘activities’ of women 7.2. A monolithic normative discourse and the equation of agency to subversion? 7.3. The sub-texts in the dominant discourse 7.4. Complicity and resistance within a dominant discourse: the mother, the wife and the daughter 7.5. Complicity and resistance within a dominant discourse: the prostitute, the widow and the woman ascetic Conclusion 209-214 Bibliography 215-235 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the Felix Scholarship Committee for sponsoring my research studies for three years in London. The School of Oriental and African Studies partly funded my field work in India. Generous grants from several Trusts allowed me to continue my Ph.D. research even after the three years were over. Among them, I would specially like to mention the Charles Wallace Trust, the Churches Commission on Overseas Students Hardship Fund, the British Federation of Women Graduates Charitable Foundation, the Professional Classes Aids Council, the Hammond Trust, the Vice-chancellor’s Fund (London University) and the Ernest Cassel Educational Trust. The staff of the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, in particular Mr. R. C. Dogra, and that of the University of London Library (Senate House) have been extremely helpful. The staff of the Bombay Asiatic Society, especially Mr. More, drew my attention to a large number of texts and supplied me with many rare books, while those at the Bombay University Libraiy (Kalina) and Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (Pune) provided useful guidance in an uncharted territory. The