From an in-depth study of the hymns attributed to the women seers of the Ṛg-veda, one may accumulate some notions about their world-view, and what life exactly meant for them. It is evident from the literature of the Ṛg-veda that by no means women had been socially handicapped as they became in India during the middle ages. The fundamental expectations of Ṛg-vedic women was to get married, and to have a household of their own with a strong yet a loyal husband and a number of offspring. The intellectual women of the Ṛg-veda, perhaps, knew a life above the mere temporal necessities. This spiritual bend of mind, of a few women at least, is best reflected in the hymn of Āmbhṛṇī Vāc (ṚV 10.125). The seer, who experiences herself as free as the eternally blowing wind, hardly cares for a life-partner. On the contrary, she claims that whomsoever she desires, she herself makes him the priest, him alone the mighty and him the seer.Prof. Mau Das Gupta is Professor in Sanskrit at Calcutta University. She was awarded the prestigious Eashan Scholarship and the University gold medal along with many other prizes for her outstanding results in graduate and post-graduate examinations of the University of Calcutta. She did her PhD at Jadavpur University. She is an Associate Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Calcutta and was head, Department of Sanskrit till January 2016. A Vedic scholar, Das Gupta has interests in various other fields of literature. A poetess herself, she is also known for writing on various issues concerning Sanskrit and Bengali literature. She is a Sahitya Akademi Awardee (2015) for her translation of Hazari Prasad Dwivedi’s Anamdas ka Potha (2012) into Bengali.
Lectures by Prof. Mau Das Gupta
The philosophy and world-view of the women of the Ṛg-veda
How did unmarried women live in the Ṛg-vedic age?
The unmarried women of the Ṛg-vedic age longed primarily for conjugal love and the security provided by a heroic husband and a number of male offspring. This talk will focus on the literature of Apālā and Ghoṣā to understand the position of unmarried women in the Ṛg-vedic age. Both these women were afflicted with skin disease and remained unmarried in their father’s home. Apālā, the seer of ṚV 8.91, according to traditional sources, was infected with a cutaneous disease, which made it difficult for her to find a suitor. She was delighted when Indra drank soma-juice from her mouth.Prof. Mau Das Gupta is Professor in Sanskrit at Calcutta University. She was awarded the prestigious Eashan Scholarship and the University gold medal along with many other prizes for her outstanding results in graduate and post-graduate examinations of the University of Calcutta. She did her PhD at Jadavpur University. She is an Associate Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Calcutta and was head, Department of Sanskrit till January 2016. A Vedic scholar, Das Gupta has interests in various other fields of literature. A poetess herself, she is also known for writing on various issues concerning Sanskrit and Bengali literature. She is a Sahitya Akademi Awardee (2015) for her translation of Hazari Prasad Dwivedi’s Anamdas ka Potha (2012) into Bengali.