Women From Ancient Indian Mythology

The Vedas uphold the position of women in a heavenly manner. The truth of this is felt even today by our worshipping goddesses or ‘Devis’ in various forms. The goddesses of love, purity, bravery, culture and so on – these are the women who inspire us not only for us to see them with reverence, but for us to see them as inspiration.

Without going into details about the exact character traits of the Devis, the generalization which we can make from these deities is that they were respected and upheld in society and have maintained that position ever since.

The Vedas, however, not only upheld women through their status as the various forms of deities but also showed them to be knowledgeable to lend a hand in formulating ancient writings and using their genius in science.

The four most important women of the times were Ghosha, Lopamudra, Maitreyi and Gargi.

We see Ghosha’s name in the Vedas where hymns are present. 27 women emerge from it, most of them who are abstractions, but Ghosha is amongst the few who has a definite human form. Two hymns are found which are attributed to her name. The first of this eulogizes Ashwins, the heavenly twins who are also physicians; the second is a personal wish of hers for her desire for married life. She suffered probably from leprosy for which she lived in her father’s house throughout her life. It was found that her disease was cured because of her devotion towards the Ashwins and her forefathers.

Lopamudra, whose name is found in the Rig Veda, is associated with great intelligence. She was said to be created by a sage named Agasthya who gave her to a royal family where she attained her education. When she reached her marriageable age, Agasthya wanted to own her but his vow of celibacy bothered Lopamudra. She wrote a hymn of two stanzas which showed her agony to want his attention and love. It was then that the sage realized his duties towards his wife and a son was born to them later became the great poet Dridhasyu.

There are ten hymns out of a thousand in the Rig Veda which is attributed to Maitreyi. She had great knowledge and enhanced the personality and spiritual thoughts of her sage husband Yajnavalkya. She was well versed in the Hindu scriptures and was a ‘brahmanvadini’ who has left her husband’s knowledge of attaining immortality and the doctrine of the soul by him.

The daughter of the sage Vachaknu, Gargi, was a Vedic prophetess. She questioned the origin of all existence and even silenced sages like Yajnavalkya who otherwise silenced many eminent scholars. Her position was well established in society for which she was also one of the participants of the ‘brahmayajna’ which was organized by the King Janak of Videha.

Moving on to the time of the Shastras, it was seen that the women mentioned in them were of 9 types, beyond which they were not seen to exist according to them. Majority of these types saw women as evil creatures full of lust for various things in life. Only the ‘devasattvastri’, the ‘gandharvasttvastri’ and the ‘munushyasattvastri’ were given positive images, whereas the ‘yakshasattvastri’ were seen as demi-goddesses and the ‘pisachasattvastri’ were even seen as a class of demons!