Jinamanjari 1996 04 No 13

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

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renouncers as in the case of Yajnavalkya's spouse, Maitreyi.3 32 There may have been women renouncers belonging to a special class of women teachers who were so prominent that a new term, upadhyayanis, was coined to designate its members.33 They formed a vital, intellectual segment of the population early in the millennium:
[A] broad class of female teachers...was prevalent throughout society, and it is probable that teaching was the most common profession open to women. With teaching, a woman could become economically selfreliant and, with a wide range of subjects to offer (grammar, poetry and literature, in addition to theology and philosophy) she could attract a broad range of students, male as well as female. 34
The well-regarded status of women in Vedic religion reached an apex with the female philosopher, Gargi, who engaged in a pivotal debate recorded in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c. 600 B.C.E.). One of the foremost thinkers of her day, she insisted on rationalistic analyses of experience.35 By the close of the sixth century B.C.E., however, the choice of pursuits open to women born into Vedic society was being diminished. In subsequent centuries, the position of women was so drastically altered that all women were regarded as equal to only the lowest caste and unfit for exposure to the sacred texts and from most religious responsibilities. The Manusmriti is unequivocal on the inferior status of women, and gives reasons for their lack of social and religious acceptability.37 Manu's indictments heralded the final phase in the disenfranchisement of women that resulted in such cruel practices as sati.
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The Brahman priests had phobic concerns about ritual purity that helped to create and to sustain the caste system and male domination. The pristine status of male Brahmans was
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