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Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 18 Article 7

January 2005

Can Women Be Priests? Brief Notes Toward an Argument From the Ancient Hindu

Laurie L. Patton

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Recommended Citation Patton, Laurie L. (2005) "Can Women Be Priests? Brief Notes Toward an Argument From the Ancient Hindu World," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 18, Article 7. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1340

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Patton: Can Women Be Priests? Brief Notes Toward an Argument From the Ancient Hindu World

Can Women Be Priests? Brief Notes Toward an Argument From the Ancient Hindu World

Laurie L. Patton Emory University"

CAN women be priests? If the word priest me from delving deeply into the means ritually authoritative, the answer from contemporary issues and struggles for these the early Indian world is resolutely "yes." I women, nonetheless recent field work in this want to begin by stating straightforwardly area suggests that women's expertise and 1 that in various periods of Indian history popularity is fast expanding. Women ritual women have acted in ritually authoritative specialists, trained by Upasini Baba in' his ways. And in my own experience of ashram at Sakori, Maharashtra, beginning in contemporary Maharashtra, while male the 1930's, have weathered challenges and priesthood might remain a cultural norm, cultural debates, and gone on to thrive in the one can find exceptions everywhere. While 1980's and 1990's. And today, the actual Vasudha Narayanan has written about most number of stri-purohits, or women ritual of these practices elsewhere on this issue, I specialists, is also growing rapidly. would add that today in Maharashtra, According to one report by V.L. Manjul, women are training in large numbers to be women ritual specialists now outnumber ritual specialists, even purohits, because of their male counterparts In certain the shortage of men. Moreover, it is neighborhoods in Pune. And social reported that they are trusted more than the acceptance locally is at an all-time high. men to charge reasonable fees and to show But what of ancient models and the up when needed. Their repertoire of Vedic possible contemporary ,uses of, those verses tends to be thinner--usually models? Recent scholarship of Mary consisting of some Gita", the Gayatri, the McGee,. Stephanie Jamison, Katherine CRV 10.90), the wedding Young, and myself among others2 have hymn CRV 10.18), and perhaps some shown evidence for women reciting sections of . While time prevents in certain shrauta sacrific.es; women reciting

Laurie L. Patton is Winship Distinguished Research Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Religion, Emory University. Her scholarly interests are in the interpretation of early Indian ritual and narrative, , literary theory in the study of religion, and women and in contemporary India. She has recently returned from India -where she worked as a Fulbright scholar, completing research for her forthcoming book, Grandmother Language: Women and in Maharashtra and Beyond. Her translation of the is forthcoming from Penguin Press Classics Series. She is the author or editor of seven books: Authority, Anxiety,' and Canon: Essays in Vedic Interpretation (ed., 1994); Myth as Argument: The Brhaddevata as Canonical Commentary (author, 1996); Myth and Method (ed., with Wendy Doniger, 1996); Jewels of Authority; Women and Text in the Hindu Tradition (ed., 2002); Bringing the to Mind: and Poetry in Early Indian Sacrifice (author, 2004); and The Aryan Controversy: History, Evidence and Inference (ed., with Edwin Bryant, 2005). Her book of poetry, Fire's Goal: Poems from a Hindu Year, was published by White Clouds Press in 2003.

Journal o/Hindu-Christian Studies 18 (2005) 17-21 Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2005 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 18 [2005], Art. 7 18 Laurie L. Patton

mantras in the home in grihya rites; women fires; this is clear from almostall the early being ritually authoritative in the village and shastric texts. Thus, priesthood per se, presiding over marriage rites; and women defined as the ability to sacrifice, is not a undergoing the upanayana ritual in order to permanent religious authority for either men be introduced to Vedic study. Moreover, or women, contingent as it is upon the women pounded rice, cleaned the animals, marital state. laid the bricks, and cooked in preparation for Let me turn now to putting on the . the sacrificial performances, just as they do lens of a contemporary Mimamsa feminist in sacrificial revivals today. And, as Frank '\ thinker and see whether one can. imagine Clooney and Mary McGee have also pointed other possibilities for women to be out, women have adhikara,or ritual sacrificing priests according to Mimamsa authority3. The ritual philosopher of rules. There are, I think, important Mimamsa, , resolutely makes the arguments and speculations that might be argument against the purvapakshin, or considered in favor of women priests, if we "philosophical opponent" who excludes posit that the proper Mimamsa (and women from sacrificing: Jaimini argues that therefore Vaidika) definition of marriage is a woman's being "sold" in marriage is not the ability to reproduce. an essential property of who they are, and Let us turn to the first issue of thus this does not disable her from marriage and reproductive technology. sacrificing (JM 6.1.10.-15). Manava Shrauta (6.23.10), the The key to the Mimamsa discussion wedding hymn RV 10.85, Chandogya is that women must remain married and Upanishad 14, Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra property owners in order to sacrifice in the 1.7 and many other texts, state that the Shrauta world. The adhikara of a woman is purpose--the if you will--of marriage clear in that she must have a husband and is indeed procreation. If that is the case, and they must sacrifice with both. She is not marriages could be dissolved on the basis of independently qualified to . sacrifice. lack of children--then what happens to such However, both are needed to perform the rules when procreation does not depend on sacrifice and the rituals fruits accrue to both. the biological technology of man and As Taittiriya states, "He who has woman joining in sexual union? Fertility in no wife has no sacrifice" (2.2.2.6) Thus, it the twenty first century is not necessarily is important to remember that either a single linked to such a union, but rather to the man or a single woman would fail if they presence of a sperm and egg. Thus, if a sacrificed alone. woman was without a husband in the There are, however, also some twenty-first century, but still had her possibilities for women performing husband's sperm, she would technically still independent shrauta sutra sacrifices. One have adhikara. text (8.23) describes a widow being able to Second, as Mimamsa thinkers, we offer to fires that have been kindled with her might also consider the case of marital husband. These are indeed grhya rites, but separation and its implication for women still, as in most grhya rites, they are shrauta performing sacrifice. If their husbands had analogues. These rites constitute what left them, women were allowed to wait Jamison calls a "shadow shrauta life.,,4 seven years before they were allowed to Gautama Sutra, which seems to be remarry (Gautama Dharma Sutra 18.15). the most liberal of the , allows a man Then the question becomes, if she had to designate a daughter as a ritual specialist access to reproductive technology even in (28.15) in the case of the absence of a son. the absence of a husband who was still alive, It is important to note here that the ceasing could a woman still' sacrifice even if her of marriage involves the ceasing of adhikara husband were not physically present? The for both men and women. A man becomes a texts could not have anticipated this renunciant and must no longer maintain the situation, and therefore did not address it.

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol18/iss1/7 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1340 2 Patton: Can Women Be Priests? Brief Notes Toward an Argument From the Ancient Hindu World Gender and Priesthood in the Hindu Traditions 19

But we could possibly answer in the space for women's ritual expertise not as affirmative. This intriguing. area needs exceptions but as crucial to the entire ritual further investigation. enterprise. The Mimamsa is resolutely clear Third, there is also the model of that one must attempt to connect this world reproduction as it is practiced in svarga by (laukika) and the world of the idea (vaidika). the gods. While stories of the gods activities Sacrifice must always be connected with the are defined as "arthavada" at best--praise to experience of everyday life. Sacrifice will be attached to codana, or ritual injunction, always be full of meaning--even beyond its they still have exhortatory force. And many ritual meaning, it must be full of what Vedic stories, such as that of Martanda or Francis D'Sacalls "significance." Thus Vivasvat, actually discuss reproduction in a sacrificial action makes daily life and duties way that does not involve actual copulation, meaningful. And, while Clooney has as is also so common in later texts. recently given us a subtler view of the role Technically, as is the case in the twenty-first of deities,6 it still is the case that Mimamsa's century, if humans have attained methods of understanding of deities was subordinate to reproduction previously available only to the its understanding of svarga, or priti--the gods, there is no reason why women or men center of the sacrificial wheel, as D'Sa puts should be disallowed from sacrificing. it. Again, this is another area for exploration. D'Sa examines priti in an intriguing Finally, there is the issue of the way. 7 According to the commentator sages as mediators of the eternally present Shabara, priti is a. specific instance of the Veda. Several women seers, such as reality of purushartha, or the aims of Lopamudra (RV 1.179), actually are humans. "That in which humans find priti, speakers of Vedic verses with optative force that significant thing (padarth~)--which (v. 6), and would therefore qualify as when accomplished gives rise to priti, that injunctive, and direct statements of dharma. significant thing is known as the While according to Mimamsa views; such purushartha. Why is this the case? The women are only agents for an authorless innate longing for it is caused by the artha; text, they still remain as direct mediators of such an innate longing is due only to artha." dharma, and therefore have adhikara to As D'Sa looks at it, whenever a person acts, inquire into the nature of dharma the innate desire for "that significant thing," (dharmajijnasa), as is so crucial to. the which is the purpose of humans, is at work. conduct of Mimamsa philosophy. These The object which brings about priti attracts women's injunctive statements become the subject who longs for it, and the subject models for ritual experts tying to understand who longs for it is also attracted to any dharma as it is stated in the Veda. (I might object who seems to produce it. In ojJr add here that Tai, one of the oldest being and in all our activ:ities such ultimate women priests at the Upasini Baba ashram, aim is at work. also did an informal study of women who There is much else to discuss here, spoke in the Veda;. a Mimamsa thinker but most importantly I want to argue that would want to divide those speech acts into priti should be seen as synonymous with what was authoritative as codana and what svarga, as Shabara also argues. (Shabara was not--but the point that women speak Bhashya 5-9; 4.3.7.15.) Svarga is priti, and Veda is understood by all.)5 everyone longs for priti. However, svarga I might add one final, and to my cannot be identified with any particular mind, most important preliminary reflection: object--hence sacrifices which do not In addition to these ritual speculations and mention a phala, or result, such as the proto-arguments, as contemporary Mimamsa Visvajit sacrifice,' are prompted by the thinkers, I think we can also make a small innate desire for svarga. Hence all intellectual path to include women in a more sacrifices produce the one result: svarga. As basic way in the philosophy--to open up i D'Sa argues, such a desire is an intuitive

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instinct among people. Thus, as Shabara looks at the traditional indicators for such states somewhat humorously, "Devadatta happiness, such as abundance, long life, or has built a park; svarga is the result; offspring, then one can also argue that Devadatta has dug a tank; svarga is the women's flourishing in all of these areas is result." (Sbh 1.2.56.11-16; 4.3.7.16.) crucial for that larger, generalizable I go into these details for several reasons. purushartha. It cannot be reduced to this Let me begin with purushartha. Under the artha, but it can be made a central element category of priti, that specific instance of of it, such as water or oxygen. In fact, one purushartha, there is technically no· reason could also argue that rites which are to exclude the category of women's organized for women's flourishing could be happiness, and women's flourishing, as one viewed as nitya, and not rites, because aspect of such general happiness. To be they are undertaken without specific desire sure, one of the basic building blocks of­ but for the common good. Mimamsa is that the relationship between a I want to stress here that this larger word and its object or ultimate meaning is philosophical point is different than saying not created, nor conventional, but existent that women's presence is essential for their beyond the human (apaurusheya) and husbands to sacrifice, as we have already beyond origin in time (nitya or autpatti). established,- or reminded ourselves, in the However, as Othmar Gachter writes of last decade of scholarship. While this Mimamsic interpretation, the presence of an historical point is crucial, it is different than artha, an object or ultimate meaning of a marking, or including, the well-being of sacrifice needs to be integrated into the women as part of that essential longing for reader's present situation and experience. priti which informs all of Mimamsa ritual. As such, Mimamsa hermeneutics cannot A related point can and should be made reproduce the original intention of a text, nor about svarga. As Clooney points out, can it allow for an imposition of meaning Jaimini says very little about svarga, despite from several millenia later. Rather, it is a its being the central motivation for so much participation in reality here and now, and it of Vedic action. 1O But we might well has become clear over the centuries that understand svarga by its larger compound of such a reality involves the well being of svargalaka, the world of svarga, which is so women. As Gachter goes on, jijnasa, or the common in Vedic texts.. And if we do ,iii . desire to know, requires an openness which understand it this way, we also can benefit neither distorts the meaning of the text nor from taking the view that Jan Gonda does of distorts the intention of the reader or laka--not exactly of a space, but of listener. What is to be understood in a text something expansive, a place to be free in or is accessible in a new perspective· or to run around in. 11 As he notes, the opposite dimension.8 A concern for women's of laka was the constriction, of space, and its flourishing is present in many Vedic synonyms were words like urn, urvi, and so statements (see RV 5.78, for instance, which on, meaning "wide." This would mean that is a hymn concerning safe childbirth, and part of svarga is the freedom to expand, to used as such in the later Vedic texts move into different arenas, and that would concerning mantric application./· include both men and women doing more What is more, if we take D'Sa's - expansive things in that expanded realm. treatment of this idea of priti as "ultimate Gonda goes on to argue even more significance," which can only be translated provocatively, and I think persuasively, that into committed action (that is the ,)n laka is as much a "transformed" and Vedic times), then one would actually be "widened" mental state that can come about able to say that such sacrificial action on as a result of an action. And if this is the behalf of women is a crucial element in that case, then we can read Mimamsa in a very larger understanding of significance. If one different _ and intriguing way--in which sacrificial action results in a transformed

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1.., Patton: Can Women Be Priests? Brief Notes Toward an Argument From the Ancient Hindu World Gender and Priesthood in the Hindu Traditions 21

mental state which mayor may not be directly evident. York: Oxford University Press, 2002). Also see If such an indication about Jamison, Sacrificed WifeiSacrificer's Wife: purushartha and svargaloka is established, Women, Ritual and Hospitality in Ancient India then a whole series of other possibilities (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996); opens up for women and ritual participation Schmidt, Hans-Peter, Some Women's Rights and Rites in the Veda (Pune: Bhandarkar .Oriental through Mimamsa. This possibility is not Research Institute 1987). because there are ritual prohibitions for

women that are removed, but rather because 3 See the larger discussion, in "Ritual Rights: the very nature of dharmic action, and The Gender Implications of Adhikara," in Jewels sacrificial action (subordinate to priti as ofAuthority, pp.42-3. Mcgee's discussion Shabara indicates), must include women's informs the next two paragraphs. actions and women's well being as part of their definition. And if this is so, then 4 Jamison, Sacrificed Wife, pp. 36-7, women's ritual participation and leadership may well be crucial for women's 5 Personal interview with Devi Tai, Sakori Ashram, July 13,2004. significance, or artha, in the larger sense that D'Sa so helpfully gives us. And women 6 Francis X. Clooney, "What's a ? The quest ritual participation, as the expanded action for the right understanding of devata in that svargaloka would imply, would be one Brahmanical ritual theory (mimamsa)" among many forms of expanded activity of International Journal o/Hindu Studies 1.2 that , or space. (1997):337-85 .. The points above are meant as philosophical "beginnings" and in no way a 7 Francis X. D'Sa, Sabdapramanyam in Sabara thoroughly worked out system. They are and Kumarila: Towards a Study ofthe Mimamsa meant to be thought-provoking and Experience ofLanguage. (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004); see especially pp. 28-9. suggestive.

8 Othmar Gachter, Hermeneutics and Language Notes in Purva Mimamsa: A Study in Shabara Bhashya (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1990), pp. 101-02. 1 Personal communication, V. L. Manjul and Devi Tai, Upasani Kanya Kunari Sthan, August 9 See a fuller discussion of the interpretiVe 2004. Also see V.L. Manjul, "Shirdi-Sakuri Don possibilities using this hymn RV 5.78 as a hymn Upasana Kshetre" in Sri Sadguru Sairkrpa against female infanticide, in "Mantras and Dassara-Diwali Issue, 2003, 64-68; "Hitherto Miscarriage. " Forbidden Realm" in Manushi pp.38-39. Also see Manjiri Damle, "Women Priests Win Hearts 10 Clooney, "Gods," p. 389. for Dedication Times ofIndia" 11129, 1997; and "Maidens Mastering Man's Mantra-Veda" II Jan Gonda, Loka: World and in the Sunday Herald Spectrum 11.24 June 4, 2004; Veda, Verhandleingen der Koninklijke and "Starting Vedic Studies" in Hinduism Today Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, (OctlNovlDec 2002): 59 (North Holland, Amsterdam: Afd. Letterkunde, 1966/67)). Niewe reeks, d.73, n.1. . 2 For a start, see Mary McGee, "Ritual Rights: Gender Implications of Adhikara"; Laurie Patton, "Mantras and Miscarriage: Controlling Birth in the Late "; Stephanie Jamison, "Giver or Given? Some Marriages in Kalidasa"; and Katherine Young, ", The . And the Status of Women with Special Reference to Shrivaishnavism"; all in Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India, Edited by Laurie Patton (New

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