Women in Ancient Hindu Society
There are numerous hymns in the Vedas that deal with the social customs then prevalent, and from them one can form a broad idea as to how girls and women were looked upon, treated, and the status accorded upon them by contemporary society…
July 10th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Devi’s are only found in one religion on earth - Hinduism…… Fertility from maternal Goddess….mata of earth , Durga the protector- Kali destroyer- Laxmi giver of wealth - Saraswati Goddess of education….to name a few !!
Hinduism is the only religion where you can find a materiacal society…. women are priests and shakti movement have great pedestools for women in their congregations. women are honored and revered …all women have mata in them ….
Our male gods all have female forms (krishna /Radha , Shiva /Parvati, Ram /Sita) . No place is given without female form ….Arjuna becomes female to become closer to krishna … shiva half male half female…… Durga slayer of male demons…..Kali has skulls of male demons around her neck….
Hinduism is the only religion to give rise to female dieties that are one element chanda munda devi companions without male form..no men needed they fight without men and win battles. Bachuria devi eunuch in form and most powerful as she forms as female and male in all encompassing femine persona .
Temples of khujaro show you the lure of the femine dieites…these in Islam are covered and kept in Purdah…In Hinduism this form is celebrated with vigour and colour …. No other religion allows the worship of yoni and lingam in multi facet form and with such devotion giving us a natural reminder that we live on mother Earth …not ‘our father tho art in heaven.’…
Christians believe In Our Father and his son Christ came to earth to save us……..
Hindus believe Our Mother gave birth to the entire universe and allowed men to enter out of her womb!!!!!!! She is maintainer , all strength and power. Our mother has arms and terrible eyes …can christians explain our mother goddess….no they cannot , because their faith teaches only male domination including dogmas and doctrines…..
Hinduism is truly great …..pity people turn to look at western religions and don’t understand our beautiful faith.
jai Mata Rani
Jai dharthi mai
July 16th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Just a question,if everyone in d vedic period busied themselves by attending gurukul in their youth,when did they find time to swirl around trees?
July 17th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
when hinduism flourished in arab world before islam began ….there was a Hubal diety (with arms and red body) also shivlingam - black stone in tall form was worshipped…. It interesting that Hubal had three daughters (godesses) that were also worshiped.
All arabs of various tribes worshipped these three female forms and offered sacrifices…. the idols of the three goddesses were in mecca itself. Mecca housed 360 idols ..include shivling style stones and monuments.
Hubal in mecca was a beautiful diety with red colour body and many arms…the image was also given pure gold hands and given offeriengs - resembles a early form of Vishnu worship.
The Black stones around the where kaaba is now housed many stones statues that were very austere and not carved these were worshipped with nautral stones and meteores- this resembles shiva worship in early form ….. There still are natural shrines in India in reverence Lord Shiva- amarnath- baderinath and mount kailash.
all these female god forms were crushed by islam and female worship was forbidden in arab world after that.
just some points to discuss.
July 24th, 2007 at 8:55 am
It is potentially useful to refer back to anceint Hindu texts, history and civilisation to demonstrate traditional Hindu attitudes towards women for purposes of education and social progression, and indeed this approach has been very successful in parts of India (for example, the highly successful DRI project in Chitrakoot). However, it is also worth bearing in mind (as I feel this article correctly and appropriately implies) that as a general guiding principle, any religion or culture ought not to be judged on how it is meant or supposed to be, but on how it actually is. For example, it is pointless for Muslims to argue against Islam being taught as consisting of different sects, as that is blatantly the reality, regardless of Qur’anic injunctions against dividing the ‘ummah’. Likewise, it is ridiculous to argue that Hinduism is a dark, evil, sexually frustrated confusion of vague polytheistic, idol-centric superstitions (just some of the Hindu-bashing stereotypes around) as again, whilst some or all of these things may have been (or even may still be) true in some isolated cases, as a general rule, this is blatantly not a true representation of Hinduism as it is. However, trying to argue that Hinduism is incredibly respectful towards women is equally a ridisulous assertion, given that any brief journey through rural India will demonstrate the absolute fallacy of this notion.
July 25th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Yes, Satya, but a walk through the emergency rooms of America will show you how good the condition of battered wives are here. The progress of women is a great struggle humanity has carried for too long. Some day that struggle will be won and it is an ideology that reveres femininity and masculinity that will win the battle (hmmm - the lingum/yoni perhaps).
hariuam