Position of Women in early ancient India.

Position of Women in Early India: The Vedic corpus is the first literary tradition in the Indian subcontinent and is the oldest in the world.

Some of the women are still remembered in various ritual and social contexts and their names, stories, some highly revered hymns and other interesting facets are mentioned in the Vedic corpus.

The importance of women is not limited to the social roles but also as originators of many important hymns, Not only feminine and masculine but also various neuter characters and categories can be identified in the Vedic corpus.

The Rigvedic society and polity seems to be teeming with life and agro-pastoral economy was enmeshed in close kinship ties. 

There was an equal participation of men with women in society, economy and polity. The hymns including the gayatri mantra are ascribed to women.

Also there are many natural phenomena which are depicted as Goddesses and they are offered prayers. The power and stature of the goddesses is equally well established.

There was an equal participation of women in all three Vedic socio-political assemblies viz. Sabha, Samiti and Vidhata and had access to education and were even engaged in knowledge creation.

There is no reason to believe that they were only confined to home and hearth.

The various texts of the period tell us about the social organization construction through these texts to show how control over women by men was mediated through the creation of caste and class hierarchies and differences.

The women were dominated by men and their behaviour, reproduction and sexuality were controlled and guarded by men. 

The women were seen as a private property of men not having any existence of their own. The Brahmanical texts tell us that women had no access to economic resources.

The main job of women was seen only in the reproduction alone.

The texts like Manusmriti give us a picture of women who enjoyed no rights and were insubordinated. Vedic society was the one which valued marriage to a large extent.

In that case if a woman chose not to marry then it would point to her exercising choice in her decision to go against the grain and remain unmarried.

The Later Vedic literature depicts the progression towards a State society with a change in the organization of the society and polity. The chief comes to be known as bhupati instead of gopari.

The importance of the chief queen continued as gleaned from several references to them in the Epies, Arthashastra and even in coins and epigraphs from early historical times.

The other Samhitas also refer to women sages such as Rishikas. The wife is referred to as sahadharmini. There was a deterioration seen in the condition of the women from the post Vedic period.

The Epics also talk about the women whose opinions were sought in major events. The Shastras comprises of sutras (aphorisms) and the smriti texts (that which is remembered”) become important in the post-Vedic period,

These texts cover many subjects relating to the four kinds of pursuits of life referred to as purusharthus (namely dharma, karma, kama and moksha).

In all these texts we find very liberal values and freedom for both women and men.

The post-Vedic phase is also rich in literary traditions with many depictions of women. Classical Sanskrit, Pali, Ardha-Magadhi, and other Prakrit languages have a rich textual tradition from this phase onwards.

The oral traditions as well as various archaeological remains have been recovered from various sites. There is a huge collection of literature that is ascribed totally to women who became Buddhist nuns. 

The Arthashastra tell about women who were engaged in economic activities of various types and formed a part of both the skilled and the unskilled workforce.

They were into professional as well as non-professional employment.

Many women were engaged in activities which though not dependent on their biological constitution are nonetheless categorized as women’s domain, e.g.domestic services etc. and many were actual state employees, while many were in contractual relations with the State.

The Buddhist and Jaina traditions also tell us about the ideas and institutions of the times.

The Jatakas are particularly biased against the passionate or affectionate relationships between man and woman.

The Suvannahamsa Jataka gives us an account of a gold-feathered bird that comes to visit his wife of previous birth so as to help their destitute situation.

In many stories we have a brahmana wife committing adultery and her sin being reported by pets or being discovered by the husband himself.

Hence, it becomes important to contextualize these stories in the newly organized social order and demands it made on the men and women.

The scholars have their interpretations about the texts and the archaeological remains. They said that on one side Sita (from Ramayana) and Draupadi (from Mahabharata) have been seen as victims of the patriarchal order; on the other hand, they are also represented as self willed women. 

The study of women was taken as a good development but there is a need to expand the horizons to include other varieties of human existence.

The need is to understand the notions of the feminine, masculine, neuter, and other forms of gender and sexual identities.

This is neither an exhaustive list nor relevant to all regions. There are multiple layers in these texts and are relevant even for a few centuries later.

We can therefore say that all sources can be utilized for understanding gender history. We also understand that understanding the history of women has implications for understanding overall history.

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