ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 04

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

Page 447

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 Raja 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 P rvati like Kāli, Durgā etc, Laksmi, Saraswati 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 super natural powers on the one hand and ordinary Abl on the other (in masses). We may infer here that such considerations of women depended on the author and the individuals in society. Mostly the literally persons called women as great, the mother of most important and virtuous people, icon of compassion and love and the first teacher to imbibe the culture and civic sense in the child and thus the men and women of future. Some authors have even compared the woman to a river which flows smoothly and giving life on the way as long as it flows within its two borders /embankments and than equating the women of bringing name and fame to the two families (of her father and husband). The problem with woman arise (like in the river) when she crosses the two embankments i.e. the two families and cause disrepute to herself and the entire female class.
Status today:
In India we find a dichotomy where on the one hand women are treated better than men. They enjoy special legal status and have the right to attain the highest position in the country (examples: Indira Gandhi as prime minister, Pratibha Patil as president, MayaVati, Rabri Devi and Jayalalitha as powerful chief ministers and so on) and on the other we still find plenty of cases of women abuse (girl child fetus elimination, girls not sent to schools and colleges for education, dowry deaths). The situation is gradually changing. In a changing world, Indian society is trying to redefine the role of women in the institution of family and society. The government of India takes special measures by enacting legal framework to provide opportunities to women to move ahead in their chosen sphere of activities (through reservations, inheritance in parental property, stiff dowry acts and now bestowing special privileges to the girl child etc). Politically Indian women today enjoy an equal status with men and wider opportunities then their counterparts in many western countries. There is a talk to provide them with new privileges and rights including inheritance rights. But a lot still needs to be done on the social and economic front, because women in Indian society still suffer from gender bias and a number of other problems such as dowry, inheritance, domestic abuse, sexual exploitation, rape and harassment.
Having reviewed the status of women in India, we shall now focus on their role and status in Jainism.
Role of women in Jain pur as (from the first fordmaker din th onwards).
Jainism is a religion of religious equality to all. Therefore it gives equal status to women to get education and practice religion. However we find some sectarian differences concerning attainment of liberation by women amongst Jains. Setting such differences aside, we find Jain texts full of stories and incidences involving women deeply involved in the uplift of society and practice / preaching Jainism.
2.
Lord din th, the first fordmaker of Jains of the preset time era emphasized the extreme importance of education for women. He therefore taught 18 scripts to his elder daughter Br hmi and mathematics to his younger daughter Sundari ( di Pur a 96-115). This is perhaps the first mention found in Jain pur as of the women being taught thereby giving equal status to women to receive education.
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STUDY NOTES version 4.0