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[1] [2] [3] Rig Vedic verses suggest that women married at a mature age and were probably free to select their own husbands in a practice called swayamvar or through Gandharva marriage. [4] The Rig Veda and Upanishads mention several women sages and seers, notably Gargi Vachaknavi and Maitreyi (c. 7th century BCE). [5]
Women enjoyed far greater freedom in the Vedic period than in later India. She had more to say in the choice of her mate than the forms of marriage might suggest. She appeared freely at feasts and dances, and joined with men in religious sacrifice. She could study, and like Gargi, engage in philosophical disputation.
The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (c. 1500 – c. 500 BCE), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (c. 1500 –900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, between the end of the urban Indus Valley Civilisation and a second urbanisation, which began in the central Indo-Gangetic Plain c. 600 BCE.
The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia. With a decline in their status from the ancient to medieval times ...
Gargi, alongside Vadava Pratitheyi and Sulabha Maitreyi, was one of the most prominent women of the Upanishads. [10] She was as knowledgeable in Vedas and Upanishads as men of the Vedic times and could very well contest the male-philosophers in debates. [11] Her name appears in the Grihya Sutras of Asvalayana. [12]
A group of courtesans in the 19th century, could be considered as a later form or evolved type of Ganikas, from the Vedic period. Gaṇikā or ganika (Sanskrit: गणिका) were female courtesans in early Ancient India, with their earliest reference in the Vedic period.
Maitreyi, who is also mentioned in a number of Puranas, "is regarded as one of the most learned and virtuous women of ancient India" [30] and symbolizes intellectual women in India. [16] A college in New Delhi is named after her, [4] as is the Matreyi Vedic Village, a retreat location in Tamil Nadu. [31]
Texts dating to the Vedic period, composed in Vedic Sanskrit, are mainly the four Vedic Samhitas, but the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and some of the older Upanishads [k] are also placed in this period. The Vedas record the liturgy connected with the rituals and sacrifices. These texts are also considered as a part of the scripture of contemporary ...