ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 01

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 182

Dhola ganvāra Sudra pašu nāri ye Saba tādana ke adhikārī ||
SCHOOL
Meaning: The untouchables, drum, animals and the women are all worthy of beating.
SELF STUDY IS THE SUPREME AUSTERITY
स्वाध्याय
OF
परमे
The women having six virtues namely; in the worldly matters, she is like a minister/adviser, as his servant (dāsi) in duty, as a mother (mātā) to feed him, as a lover (rambhā) in his bed, partner in his religious duties, as mother earth in forgiveness is rare.
The great poet Tulsi Das wrote the following concerning women (debated though as his writing).
तप
3 Śrīramacaritamanasa, Sundarakanda by Tulsidas, under Dohā -58
STUDIES
STUDY NOTES version 5.0
All the above verses and statements show the woman as ABALA or destitute, helpless and dependent on others (men) for her existence. Same is the case when we go through the ancient classical literature of India where the king, the highly placed ministers, elder-men in the royal court, and the wise men (Brāhmaṇas) speak in Sanskrit and the women and children and the servants clubbed together speak in Prakrit. Sometimes even in Jain literature also we find mention of women treated as mere possessions.
The literature of Christians and even Islam also is similar. In Judaism and Christianity we find the barbaric conception when it declared woman to have been made for man., first in sin and commanded to be under obedience; holding as its chief tenet a belief in the inherent wickedness of woman, the originator of sin.
The above statements give a picture of the women in general. But we have no evidence to believe that these were followed by all sections of the society. However we know that as late as nineteenth century AD, when a Hindu man died, his wife either committed sati on his funeral pyre or retired into a life of social damnation, religious contemplation and perennial solitude till Rajaram Mohan Roy started and succeeded in abolishing this custom legally. Similarly the desire for a male child appears especially insatiable as without the male child the family lineage is prone to elimination and the father is not fit to go to heaven.
On the other hand, we find Hindu mythology is full of goddesses (several reincarnations of Pārvatilike Kālī, Durgā etc, Lakṣmi, Sarasvati each being benevolent and able to protect or gift those in need of her specialist virtues. However we find a big vacuum from women with
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